Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm
by The Wolf That Waits
Summary: AU. Max first discovered her powers five years earlier than in canon, very soon after moving to Seattle. She disappeared from the face of the earth soon after. Now, five years later, Max returns, haunted by her past. Its a very different Max that steps into the bathroom that fateful day. Crossposted on AO3 under TheWolfThatWaits
1. Chapter 1

Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm

Chapter One: The Bathroom

" _Five years ago, my father died and my best friend moved away and never talked to me again. At first I was angry, pissed off that she would just leave me in my time of need. Then I was worried. It wasn't like her to just abandon me like that. Now I just don't care."_

She could smell the rain. Before she could hear it or even see it, Max could smell the rain in the air. But this wasn't the nice refreshing smell of rain in the spring, this was the smell of mud and wet fur, a winter storm.

She couldn't hear anything. Or anything meaningful at least. The sound of the storm howling around her blocked out anything meaningful that may have been hidden on the wind. Every now and again, she would hear the mighty clap of thunder, breaking through the high-pitched monotony of the wind.

Max opened her eyes. She was standing at the base of a forest trail, in the middle of a horrendous storm. All around her the wind bellowed, tossing around discarded trash and woodland debris like a child's playthings. Ice cold rain ran down the back of her neck and into her shirt, the wind catching the trails and causing shivers to run down her spine.

A spectral doe caught Max's eye. It stared directly into her eyes, as if it were gazing into her soul, judging her worth. Having apparently come to a decision, the doe gestured with its head to the path leading up the hill, before turning back to Max and watching her, waiting to see how she'd react.

"Do you want me to follow you?" Max asked the doe. It nodded its ghostly head, then turned around and trotted into the forest until it vanished into the rain.

Not knowing what else to do, Max followed the doe, climbing up the old dirt path, passing a large signboard, whose cracked lettering declared the area as the Arcadia Bay lighthouse park.

Entering the treeline, Max took a second of reprieve from the wind and rain, taking advantage of the shelter. Pushing forward once more, Max continued following the path up the hill. As she did, Max marvelled at how still the forest seemed in comparison to just 5 metres outside the treeline. She could see the empty beer bottles that had hidden behind tree roots signposts, the occasional animal hiding from the weather in a hollow tree.

Pushing forward, Max found herself at the edge of the forest. Steeling herself to go back out into the storm, Max stepped out of the treeline and into the clearing. The first thing she noticed was the lack of the storm. The clearing was almost completely calm and dry. The next thing she noticed was the return of the doe.

"Well I'm here, what did you want to show me?" Max asked the doe, reflecting on how strange it was talking to a doe.

The doe ignored her and continued further into the clearing. Max followed, rounding a corner and coming face to face with a lighthouse, built on the Cliffside, overlooking the bay, where the storm raged on.

"There's the storm" Max said to no one in particular, "but why isn't it reaching here?"

She turned to the doe, hoping it might provide some kind of answer, but as always it turned around and continued walking, confident that Max had caught up.

Max followed as the doe walked up to the entrance to the lighthouse.

"Is this what you wanted to show me? The lighthouse?"

The doe, yet again refused to answer, instead walking through the closed door, disappearing into the lighthouse.

"Well how am I supposed to follow you in there?" She asked the space where the doe once stood, after finding the door locked.

Not sure what else to do, Max walked around the base of the lighthouse, in case there was another entrance on the other side. Instead of a door, however, she found a tornado.

A giant tornado, heading straight across the bay, towards the town. Somehow though, this tornado didn't seem normal, there was something off about it. Max was going to ignore it until she realised what it was. There seemed to be the shapes of faces trying to form in the wind, almost like the tornado wanted to give itself a human body, but couldn't quite form a face, let alone a body.

Max wasn't quite sure why she tried to caress the side of the faces in the tornado. Maybe she thought she could help it calm down, maybe regain control of itself. The question of why never really entered her mind as she stepped towards it, reaching out to comfort it.

Max took a step forward, and everything went black.

"…film, little pieces of time…"

Max heard Mr Jefferson lecturing as the world came back into focus around her. It felt like it had been an eternity since Max had entered the class and heard the start of the lecture, and she desperately tried to remember how it had started. She wasn't sure what to call it, but the dream-like state she had been in had made it hard to recall the events of earlier in the class.

Max wasn't sure what to make of the dream. It didn't feel like a regular dream, and it certainly hadn't felt like she was asleep. It was somewhat like the couple of hallucinations she'd had in the past year or so, but it made more sense than any of them had.

Deciding that dwelling on the dream wouldn't get her anywhere, Max tried to focus on Jefferson's lecture, but her attention kept drifting off. "…from light to shadow…" The sound Stella's pen made as it hit the floor. "…from colour to chiaroscuro…" A paper ball flying across the classroom. Victoria's phone vibrating on the table. "…who perfectly captured the condition of the…".

Max figured it must just be a side effect of her lack of sleep, having been kept up by nightmares most of last night. The more she thought it, the more likely it seemed. She was probably just drifting off and having strange dreams.

Giving up on listening to the lecture, Max let her attention wander. Her blue polaroid she swiped from a second-hand store several months ago. She faintly remembered seeing it and thinking that photography could be something nice to fill her time. It ended up taking up much of her life since then, to the point where she returned to Arcadia Bay - something she had sworn never to do – just to take the course she was in now.

Figuring she had focused on her camera for long enough that it would be rude not to, Max decided to take a photo. Not sure what else to photograph, Max turned the camera on herself.

Shit - clearly, she hadn't been paying enough attention to Jefferson, as it seemed she had taken the photo right in the middle of a pause in his lecture, based on the way the entire class turned to look at her.

"Could you repeat that please, Mr Jefferson?"

"Apparently not, can anybody else tell me the name of the process that gave birth to self-portraits?"

Apparently, Victoria could, as she raised her hand as soon as she could without cutting him off.

"Lois Daguerre was a French painter who created 'daguerreotypes', a process that gave portraits a sharp, reflective style, like a mirror." Victoria then turned to Max, "now you're like totally stuck in the Retro Zone. Sad face."

Too tired to deal with Victoria's shit today, Max waited for Mr Jefferson to confirm her answer before raising her hand and focusing on it, releasing her god-like powers upon the world.

The clock ticked backwards and lips moved in unnatural ways as time reversed approximately half a minute. Max smirked a little, amused by the idea that she was using the immense powers of time travel to show up another student in class.

Lowering her hand once more, Max allowed time to flow normally once more, reappearing right after Mr Jefferson asked her a question.

"The 'daguerreotype' was a process created by French painter Lois Daguerre, which gave portraits a sharp, reflective surface, like a mirror".

Jefferson raised an eyebrow, surprised that Max had been paying enough attention to answer his question. Normally, Max would have trouble focusing, and had trouble retaining a lot of his lectures.

"Clearly Max knows her stuff", Mr Jefferson said, recovering from his surprise. "Either way –".

He was cut off from lecturing again when the bell rang. As the students streamed out of the class, he made a last-minute plea for students to enter some photography competition Max didn't really care about. Catching Kate's eye as she packed up her things, Max walked over to her desk.

"Hey Kate", she started, "how are you holding up?"

"Oh, hey Max," Kate replied, "I've been alright I guess." Max could tell Kate wasn't being honest. She had bags under her eyes, chewed finger nails, and her normally immaculate bun was falling apart. She looked like shit. She reminded Max of herself, if Max was being honest with herself.

"Look Kate, I know this has been hard on you. Can you meet me for tea later today? I have something I want to tell you, something personal."

"Sure thing Max" Kate replied. She didn't sound much different to earlier, but she looked a little more awake knowing that Max wanted to have tea.

"I want you to know you're not alone Kate," Max finished, "I'm here for you, if you need anything, anything at all, come to me and I'll be there for you."

"Thanks Max," Kate said, standing up. "I'll see you later today then." With that, Kate grabbed her bag and headed out to her next class.

Taking a couple steps over, Max bent down and picked up the paper ball Taylor had thrown at Kate earlier. She didn't even open to read it, she didn't need to, just the thought of what would be in it made her squeeze it like a stress ball. Realising she was working herself up unnecessarily, Max calmed herself as best she could and dropped the ball in the rubbish bin by the classroom door.

Max was going to continue out the door when she heard Mr Jefferson call her over. Sighing, she turned around and waked over to where he and Victoria were discussing her submission for the Everyday Heroes contest that he had been pushing the class to enter.

"Yes, Mr Jefferson?" Max asked him, hoping this would be over quickly so she could go and catch up on last night's sleep, or at least try and wake herself up before she met up with Kate.

"I wanted to talk to you about class today. I appreciate that you know the material, and that it can be easy to drift off and lose focus because of it, but when you take photos, especially with a polaroid camera like yours, you distract the other students and can interfere with their learning. Do you get what I'm trying to say?"

Max took a breath and tried her hardest to look like she cared as much as she probably should. "I'm sorry Mr Jefferson, it won't happen again. Can I go now?" She desperately hoped he was done so she could go wash her face to wake herself up before she went to see Kate.

"One last thing Max" he replied. "How is your submission for the everyday hero's contest going? You have great potential, and it would be a shame to waste it." He seemed to genuinely want her to enter, Max noticed, not just a teacher trying to get a kid to do their work.

"I haven't done it." Max wasn't going to tell him, but she had absolutely no intention of entering the contest. Any chance at fame or virality was something to be avoided in her eyes.

"Then get on it, Max. You have a gift and you should share it with the world." He sighed. "Okay Max, I won't keep you any longer. Just keep it in mind, alright?"

Glad he was finally letting her go, Max gave a half-hearted nod before she darted out the door and into the hallway. Giving Kate, who must have left class while she was talking to Mr Jefferson and was now standing at her locker, a smile as she passed, Max walked down to the bathroom ignoring the rest of the students.

Max was about to opening the bathroom door when she heard a distinctly recognisable crack and an accompanying scream. She felt horrible memories of her own past coming forward, but desperately tried to push them aside as she rewound time, hoping she could stop whatever was happening in the bathroom without getting shot herself.

Max steeled her nerves and stepped into the bathroom. She was glad to find it empty, meaning she had been right to give herself a few minutes of gap time before anyone was shot. Taking advantage of her extra time, Max tried to plan out what she could do. She could pull the fire alarm, which would hopefully stop the meeting. However, it could also just move the meeting to who knows where, which would stop her being able to intervene if she needed to. Her hand lingered over to her bag, where her own weapon lay concealed. She could intervene directly, attacking the attacker. If she had the element of surprise it would probably work, and if she got a clean shot they wouldn't be able to react and attack her back.

Deciding on her retaliation strategy, Max felt dirty. She didn't like using her gun, she had done it before and the results would haunt her for the rest of her life. Sighing, she walked over to the sink and washed her face, wondering if she was making the right choice. There was no way she could be, was there?

Max caught a flicker of blue in her peripheral vision. Looking over, she saw a beautiful blue butterfly, unlike any she had seen before, flitter down through a window and land on a bucket in the corner of the room, behind the last stall. Checking that she still had time before anyone was due to be shot on her phone, Max stepped closer to the butterfly. She saw an opportunity. She could take a photo and submit it to Mr Jefferson as her contest entry. The photo would be good enough to satisfy him, but its poor fitting to the entry criteria would hopefully stop her from winning.

Carefully, so not to startle the butterfly and ruin her shot, Max pulled out her blue polaroid and quickly snapped a shot. Shaking off the photo to dry the development agent, Max put her camera away, just in time to not drop it when she heard the door open, then slam shut again. Nathan Prescott – the local rich kid – walked into the bathroom, shaking and muttering to himself.

Max put her photo away as she scrambled to figure out what she was going to do. She definitely didn't want to shoot anyone - not again - but she couldn't see any other way to go about it.

A glint out the corner of her eye caught her attention. There was a hammer lying underneath a janitor's cart, right next to the bucket the butterfly had landed on. It was perfect. Hard enough to knock some out, or at least distract them, but not so dangerous as to guarantee death. Lying down, Max reached her arm under the cart and grabbed the hammer, giving it a couple of practice swings to make sure she wouldn't mess it up in the moment.

The door closed for a second time, letting a blue-haired punk girl into the bathroom. She looked faintly familiar to Max, but in the heat of the moment she couldn't place where she'd seen the other girl before.

Max listened intently as the two argued, trying to gauge who was about to shoot the other. Risking a glance around the stall wall, Max saw that Nathan had the blue-haired girl trapped in the corner. Taking that as all the evidence she needed, she dashed out from her hiding place, intending on striking Nathan on the head as hard as possible. Her arm was raised above her head when she heard the crinkle of a wrapper underfoot.

"What the fuck was that". Evidently Nathan had heard it as well, because he turned around, going to aim the gun at Max. His eyes darted up to see Max pull down on the hammer to strike him.

"No you don't bitch!" Nathan pulled the trigger as the hammer hit him. The bullet went flying off its intended course, only grazing Max's arm and imbedding itself in a wall.

"Fuck" Max winced, grabbing her arm. That wasn't how that was meant to go. Nathan seeing her was probably one of the wore things that could happen, leaving him to tell others about what she did. Not giving the girl a chance to figure out what just happened, Max raised her arm and rewound, being careful to avoid the wrapper this time so he wouldn't hear her.

Watching the world reverse around her, Max wished, not for the first time, that her injuries would be affected by her powers and disappear with the flow of time. Max lowered her arm, allowing the world to fall back into time.

Taking advantage of the element of surprise, Max quickly raised the hammer above her head and brought it down as hard as she could on the top of Nathan's head. She watched in morbid fascination as his body slumped to the floor, before snapping out of it and quickly checking his breathing – making sure she hadn't killed him by mistake.

Relieved that he was still breathing, Max grabbed his gun and unloaded it before putting it in her bag. Curious, she glanced over to the girl she had saved. The blue-haired girl was watching, seemingly still in shock about what happened. Getting back to the task at hand, Max quickly checked through Nathan's pockets for valuables before starting to drag him behind the stall she had been hiding behind.

"Are you going to help or what?" Max asked the blue-haired girl as she dragged Nathan along the tiled floor. Max didn't really mind that the girl wasn't helping her drag Nathan's body, but the silence was getting unnerving.

"You… you killed him…" The blue-haired girl stuttered.

Looking back up at the girl, Max was going to reassure her that Nathan was, in fact, still alive and merely knocked out, but cut herself off when she realised just who was standing before her.

"Chloe…"


	2. Chapter 2

Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm Chapter Two: Reintroductions

"Max?" Chloe felt so confused. Max had left her life five years ago, only a few weeks after her dad died, when her parents had moved her to Seattle. Not even a month later, all her communication with Max was abruptly cut off, with letters, texts, and even phone calls going completely unanswered.

Once she had called Max's parents, hoping they could at least tell her that Max didn't want to talk to her anymore. To her surprise, they denied that Max had ever existed. It was as though any evidence of Max's life had disappeared. All Chloe had was her memories, and a few of their old getaways and treehouses. Eventually, a question started to form in the back of Chloe's mind, was Max even real? Or had she imagined her childhood best friend?

So naturally, when confronted with a sobbing and very real Max – who had just saved her life, clinging onto her like her own life depended on it, Chloe didn't know what to do. Reaching around, Chloe awkwardly held onto Max, letting her calm herself down.

Taking the arm around her as a positive sign, Max clung on tighter, as if she were desperate to reattach herself to her past.

"You saved my life Max…" Chloe still didn't know what to do, but Max's refusal to let go seemed to mean that what she had done wasn't a bad thing. It was a quite surreal, Chloe found, clinging to a long-lost friend in a public bathroom, with the unconscious body of her would-be killer lying face down in the tiles only a few metres away.

Chloe wasn't sure how long they had been standing there when she heard Nathan begin to stir, making her realise that she and Max should get out of the bathroom and as far away from him as possible. Gently, she coaxed Max into letting her go and helped guide her out of the bathroom.

||

Her face felt cold. Actually, her entire body felt cold, but her cheek was lying in a small pool of mud, and the way it stuck to her face amplified the cold tremendously. All around her wind roared, carrying the shrieks and moans of the storm across the forest.

Max groaned as she opened her eyes. She was back in the storm, seeming to have returned to her dream from earlier in the day. Rain lashed at her clothes as she made her way into the treeline, hoping the lighthouse would provide the same oasis it had last time.

The storm had evidently gotten worse than last time. Every few minutes thunder would clap as lighting struck the trees. One such strike had caught a tree on fire, and she could now hear the slight sizzle of rain hitting the flaming branches.

Worried the fire would spread, Max picked up her pace, racing to the safety of the lighthouse before she could get caught in a forest fire. However, with a quicken pace came looser footwork, and she slipped in the mud, heading face first towards a bottle broken on a rock. Thinking fast, she stretched out her arm and willed for time to stop.

Time obeyed.

Relishing the utter silence of the space between seconds, Max righted herself and took a second to breath. Figuring that, seeing as she had already stopped time, she may as well continue walking towards the lighthouse in the safety of her powers.

Taking advantage of the frozen world, she moved past obstacles with ease, walking around tumbling logs and ducking under a tree that was in the process of falling. As she stood up from under the tree, Max saw the same spectral doe from her other dream. It wouldn't have been too bad, Max figured it'd be a part of the dream again if it was there the first time, if it weren't for the fact that it was moving.

Time was frozen and only Max could move through it, or so she had thought just a few moments ago. The deer wasn't doing much, just watching her, it's head cocked, as though it were curious about her. Curious herself, Max approached it. As she neared it, the doe responded in kind, taking a step towards her and lowering its head in a sign of peace.

Boldened by the doe's display, Max reached forward a hand and touched its forehead. Immediately, her mind was filled with flashes of scenes and snippets of conversations, shuffled into a giant mess of lights and sounds. She winced as the assault of memories flooded her brain, drowning out her own thoughts.

While she still had the mental strength to do so, Max yanked her hand away from the doe. It looked up at her then lowered its head, as though it were sad that she had pulled away.

"What are you?" Max had no idea. In the last five years Max had seen some pretty strange and unexplainable stuff, and had only seen something that messed with her mind so much once. She shuddered just thinking about it.

To what seemed to be the doe's disappointment, Max backed away, terrified of what the doe may do if she touched it again. Hoping that unfreezing time would make the doe go away so she wouldn't have to deal with it again, she raised her hand and willed time to continue its passage.

The droplets of water that had been frozen just moments ago continued their fall, and the wailing wind slammed into Max like a freight train. Despite the awful weather and much to her surprise, Max felt better than ever. Normally, any use of her powers was a little tiring, and freezing time especially could cause headaches and nosebleeds if she wasn't careful with it. However, Max felt wide awake and as light as a feather. She watched as the doe darted away from her, dancing its way up to the lighthouse, where it disappeared inside.

Returning to the task at hand, Max finished the last stretch of her hike up to the lighthouse, grateful that her theory had been correct and the storm hadn't touched it. To her surprise, however, she wasn't alone at the lighthouse. Sitting on a bench overlooking the bay sat Chloe, blue hair and all.

"What's happening Chloe? How are you here?" Max hoped the Chloe that inhabited this dreamlike world could help her understand it.

Chloe ignored her, continuing to stare into the storm, watching it's faces fold into it and reappear, just as they had in her earlier dream. Following her gaze, Max saw the tornado rain down on Arcadia Bay once more.

She nearly missed the soggy newspaper caught on the wire fence that separated the picnic area from the tumbling cliffs, but she saw a flash of green light, the same colour as the spectral doe that had inhabited both dreams. Curious, she wandered over to the newspaper and picked it off the wire.

Dated for Friday, the 11th of October, the main article started to say something about a student committing suicide on Blackwell Academy grounds before the water damage made the rest of the article illegible.

||

A sharp jerk woke Max from her light sleep. Awake in an instant, Max's eyes darted around what appeared to be the inside of a truck and the scent of burnt cigarettes overpowered her nostrils. Her eyes glided over the clock on the dashboard before they settled on the image of Chloe, bathed in sunlight, driving the truck down a somewhat familiar street. With that she finally let herself relax, knowing she was safe.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Max." Chloe must have seen her move out of the corner of her eye.

"Where are we going? Did I pass out or something?" Sometimes overusing her powers caused her to pass out, but what Max had done in the bathroom by no means should have been enough to cause it.

"I figured after what you did to Nathan, we should probably get out of the school, so I'm taking you to my place. As for what happened to you, I have no idea. You just stopped responding to everything. I was lucky your still light enough for me to carry you to my truck."

Max winced a little at the mention of her weight, it wasn't something that she liked talking about. She had been on the light side before, but half a decade of malnourishment had left her unhealthily small, something she had only really started to recover from recently. Looking for some sort of way to change the topic, Max let her eyes wander around, searching for something to talk about.

She didn't find anything and ended up looking at her feet awkwardly. What did you say to someone you hadn't seen in five years?

Chloe, it turned out, wanted to talk about that.

"What happened to you Max? You left for Seattle and I never heard from you again. Anytime I tried it was as though you'd never existed. What gives?"

Max had no idea how to respond. She didn't want to tell Chloe what happened to her – not yet at least. Hell, she was still coming to terms with it herself, and it had been a year since she escaped. But at the same time, she couldn't just lie to Chloe and tell her she'd just not called her for no reason.

"I really don't want to talk about this right now Chloe." Hopefully that would hold Chloe off until she could figure out how to tell her what happened.

"Bullshit. You leave me for five years, right when I needed you most, and now you won't even tell me why?" Chloe was pissed, and Max supposed that if she were in Chloe's position she probably would be too.

"Look Chloe, I'm sorry alright. I really am. But I just can't tell you, not yet anyway." Max wasn't lying, or at least not entirely. She was sorry, but she still didn't feel like she could tell Chloe what had happened. She didn't want to admit it, even to herself, but she was afraid that if Chloe knew what had happened to her she'd be scared. Scared of her, scared of what could happen to her just by being around her. So she hid the truth, just wanting to be able to hang out with her old friend again and not have to worry about her leaving.

Chloe didn't look entirely happy with that answer, and Max couldn't fault her for that. Even if she didn't want to, she had left her in her most vulnerable time, and a simple apology probably wasn't going to be enough to mend that gap, though hopefully it would be a start.

Chloe pulled into the driveway, turned off the engine, and stared out the window. Her mind took her back to the last time she and Max had been in a similar situation, the day her dad died. Taking a deep breath, Chloe opened the door and motioned Max to come inside.

Max took in the sight of the house as she got out of the car. It was a little unsettling how similar it looked to the last time she was her. It was still only half painted. The lawns looked as untrimmed as ever. Even the same American Flag hung over Chloe's window.

Taking her first steps up the path, Max relived some of her last memories here, coincidently some of her last happy memories, sleepovers with Chloe, making pancakes with Chloe, just hanging out with Chloe. It felt wild to Max that all of that was only five short years ago. It felt like so much had happened, so much had changed since they were young.

Stepping inside the nostalgia was turned up to eleven. The wine stain from one of their escapades, the couch where they'd lay all night playing video games, the old change jar, perpetually saving for a trip to Paris. The emotion was overwhelming and Max didn't know what to say.

"Come on Max, I'm sure you remember the way to my room."

"Yeah, yeah…" Max drifted off. The wonder she felt being back here again was almost childlike. "I can't believe it's been five years Chloe. I've missed this house. I've missed you."

The slight scowl Chloe had been carrying since their conversation in the car eased. Watching Max re-enter her life in such a way, that something as simple as her house made her this emotional, Chloe couldn't help but share in the joy of the moment. She was forced to wonder what had actually happened in those five years where it felt like Max didn't even exist for this to be her reaction, just to Chloe's house.

The two of them headed up the stairs and turned into Chloe's room.

"Welcome back Max. I'm sure it's a little different from what you remember." Chloe raised her arms and gave a small twirl, showing off her room in a faux-extravagant manner.

Max wasn't really sure what to say. Chloe was right, it was different than she remembered, with the walls covered in graffiti and suggestive posters, and every surface covered in random crap and rubbish. Even if it was so different it felt like home, and that wasn't something Max had felt in a very long time.

"It's perfect."

"Well then, ass kisser, why don't you take a photo. That's something you still do I assume?"

Rolling her eyes at Chloe's antics, Max pulled out her camera. Or what was left of it. It must have smashed into something in her bag, probably in the truck. The lens had shattered and the hinged flash had snapped off.

"Well shit." Max didn't mind that much, to be honest. The camera didn't really have any kind of emotional significance to her, and it hadn't exactly cost anything, seeing as she had stolen it. But it was still annoying as hell.

"Any chance of fixing it?" Chloe asked. "My step-douche has a bunch of tools in the garage if you need them."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm not fixing this. Not without a new lens."

"In that case, I know it was your birthday recently –

"My what?" Max interrupted. Not literally of course, she knew the concept of her birthday existed – and had celebrated it before for that matter, but it had been so long since someone last even mentioned it that she couldn't for the life of her remember when it was.

"Birthday dumbass. You know, get presents? Another year alive, that sort of thing?"

"I know what a birthday is Chloe. How did you remember? Not even I could…" Max trailed off. She was shocked that Chloe could remember, even when she couldn't.

"You're joking, right?" Chloe didn't believe Max for a second. Max had loved birthdays growing up, the idea that she'd ever forget one seemed ludicrous. That just wasn't Max.

"I'm not joking Chloe. It's been so long since anyone did anything for it that I just of forgot…"

"Oh my god. You're not joking are you…" Chloe didn't know what to say. What could have happened to her since they last saw each other that she couldn't even remember her own birthday. "Well, I guess that means we've just got five years of birthdays to catch up on!" She figured that if Max couldn't remember her birthday, Chloe would just have to give her a reason to remember in the future.

Riffling through her shelves, Chloe pulled out a light grey polaroid camera and put it in Max's hands. "To start with, Dad's old camera, to replace that shitty thing!" Chloe said, pointing at Max's broken camera, which lay sitting on one of the few clear spaces on Chloe's desk.

Max was shocked. Chloe had been utterly destroyed by her dad's death, and from the looks of her room hadn't ever really gotten over it. The idea that she was giving Max William's old camera was incomprehensible.

"I can't take this Chloe. It's too much" Max said, giving Chloe back the camera. The fact that she had remembered her birthday, making her the only person – including Max – to do so in five years was more than enough. In fact, there was only one thing Max really wanted as a gift, now that she thought about it. "If you insist on giving me a gift, could you just tell me when my birthday is?" Just knowing would be nice, Max thought, some way to connect to her old life, to her parents, one that hadn't gone up in smoke or left her on a street corner.

It felt like a punch to the gut for Chloe. The Max she knew would never had rejected a present, even if it was something as emotionally significant as William's camera. Chloe was starting to dread finding out what had happened to her best friend over the five years they spent apart.

"How about this then. I'll tell you your birthday, and, in return, you accept my dad's camera. He would have wanted it to be used, not lying around on a shelf, and this way I'll know it's being used awesomely."

"I guess I can't really say no to that." If Chloe was sure about giving her William's camera, she wouldn't say no. Especially if that meant that she'd learn – or rather re-learn – her birthday, something that Max had honestly thought she'd never get to celebrate again in her life.

"Damn straight you can't say no to that" Chloe replied, passing Max the camera. "Your birthday – assuming I'm remembering correctly – is on the 21st of September, not even a month ago. Happy birthday, Max."

"Chloe, thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I honestly thought I was never going to have a birthday again."

"Hey, no worries Max…" Chloe wanted to continue, to ask her what happened to her to hurt her so much, but she held her tongue. Max said she'd tell her when she's ready, and even after all that time without contact, Chloe trusted her. Instead she changed the topic to another thing that had been on her mind since the bathroom.

"Hey Max, I had a question. About how you saved me."

That sentence set off alarms in Max's head. Still, worst come to worst she could just reverse time and change the topic before Chloe, so no real harm in letting her ask her questions. Besides, for all Max knew it could be something a little more mundane, such as why she stole his wallet.

"Ask away."

"In the bathroom, when Nathan pulled out his gun, you almost – god I'm going to sound crazy – it looked like you teleported. You stood out from behind the stall one second, and the next Nathan is lying unconscious on the ground and you've got a hammer in your hands."

Shit. That was almost exactly what Max didn't want Chloe to ask. It wasn't the end of the world, she'd answered questions like it a few times over the last year, but it was a bit of a wakeup call. She'd have to be more careful with her powers in the future.

"Weird." That part wasn't a lie at least. "It must have been the stress or something, because I certainly didn't teleport." While also technically not a lie, it wasn't as close to the truth as Max would have liked to be with Chloe.

"I guess that must have been it" Chloe agreed, although she didn't look entirely convinced. "Either way, after today I need to chill out. How about you put on some tunes while I 'medicate'."

Max started looking through the absolute mess that was Chloe's room as Chloe lit her joint. For some ungodly reason the player was unplugged, and the cd's themselves were nowhere to be found.

"Hey Chloe."

"Maaaax."

"What's it like smoking weed?" Max had wondered this a few times, because apparently it could help you relax, and sometimes that was something Max dreadfully needed.

That wasn't what Chloe was expecting, although to be fair she didn't really know what to expect with Max anymore. She'd changed a lot since they'd last seen each other five years ago, and figuring out this new Max was proving harder by the minute.

"Huh. Little Max wants to learn about drugs. I never thought I'd see the day." Chloe wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. "I'm so proud."

Max gave her a playful shove. "Just tell me Price."

"I don't really know what to tell you, to be honest." Chloe said. "Different people experience it different ways. Like with me its real relaxing, kind of like a warm bed. It helped my focus to, in a way. When I'm high I can only really think of one thing at a time. But the really good thing is that it makes me feel like everything's going to be alright. Like I'm going to grow up and not be a complete fuck up. It might be different for you though. Apparently not everyone is affected the same way, you'd have to try it to find out."

Max thought about it for a moment. Chloe description sounded really helpful, to be honest. Not worrying all the time, helping her relax and forget. It sounds like it might make sleep tolerable.

"So, do you want to?" Chloe was holding out her joint, offering it to Max.

"I guess I will." Reaching for the joint, Max held it in her fingers for a moment before raising it to her lips and taking a breath.

"Now that you've done that," Chloe said, taking back the joint and laying back, "let's get those tunes going! Music please Max."

Rolling her eyes at Chloe's antics, Max continued her search for the cd's. The weed was taking longer to kick in then she had thought it would, although now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure how long she was expecting it to take.

They weren't on the desk, or the shelves. She opened Chloe's closet to search in there, but no luck. After a couple minutes of wandering around in circles looking for them, Max noticed a small metal box sticking out from under Chloe's bed. She pulled it out and opened it, at last finding the mythical cd.

Max pulled out the cd and looked at it. It was an old mix she had made Chloe back when they were kids. She remembered writing "Max's Mix" on the silver herself. She was surprised and incredibly touched that Chloe still had it.

Putting the cd down for a second to put the lockbox away, Max noticed photo folded in half in the box. Curious, she pulled it out. It was a photo of Rachel Amber. The same one from all the missing person posters around Arcadia Bay, the same as all the posters in this room, Max realised. She hadn't even noticed before because she'd been seeing them everywhere since she got back to Arcadia, but there were piles of them on Chloe's desk, spilling onto the floor. Interestingly, none of them had spilled into the rubbish bin, even though it was right next to desk.

The photo was quite badly damaged at this point. Compared to the posters, this version had stains streaks all the way down, and the edge where it was folded over was weak and fraying, as though it had been folded and unfolded a thousand times. Unfolding it herself, she saw Chloe, in a very similar outfit to what she was wearing today, with one arm around Rachel's shoulder and the other pulling the finger at the camera.

Max was about to fold it back over and put it back in the box, clearly being very important to Chloe, when said girl snatched it out of her hands.

"Hey, gimme that!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Three: Rachel Amber**

"Hey, gimme that!"

Chloe snatched the photo from Max's hands, before very carefully checking that the photo wasn't damaged. Desperately she tried to wipe off any oils that Max's had left on it. Deeming that they had been, Chloe folded the photo back over and stared at it. She'd have to be more careful with it. It had already been stained and streaked with tear drops, if she wasn't careful it might get so weak it tears, and then she'd have nothing left.

"Sorry for intruding. Obviously, she was a good friend." Max took a seat next to Chloe at the foot of her bed.

"That's putting it lightly." Chloe's voice was wet. This was clearly a saw subject for her. From all of Rachel's posters around her room, Max wasn't surprised. Hell, Chloe was probably the one printing and distributing the posters.

"That's Rachel Amber. Her missing person posters are all over the town. I take it you put them up?"

"Yeah I did. She was my angel. After my dad died and you disappeared, I felt lost. Rachel found me. She saved my life Max."

"I'm glad she was there for you." Max knew that Chloe must have had it hard after she left, but actually hearing her say it felt like a knife to the gut. If only she could change the past and be there for her. Internally, Max sighed, even with her ability to rewrite history, some of the most important things to her she'd never be able to change.

"I wish she didn't have to be. I was fourteen, we were best friends. I wish that I knew what was stopping you from coming back so that I could punch it in it's stupid face."

It was heart-warming to hear Chloe act so defensive of her after all this time, even if it was in her own, aggressively Chloe, way.

"You know Chloe, I think I met Rachel once. I can see why you like her so much." She wasn't certain, but she thought that in the first few weeks of her time at the Facility she had seen Rachel. Somehow, she had always managed to see the bright side to life, dreaming of a day when she'd be outside and free.

"You met her? But Max, she disappeared six months ago. How long have you been in Arcadia? Why didn't you contact me at all in that time? I needed you Max." The hurt and betrayal in Chloe's eyes at the idea of Max being in Arcadia for so long without seeing her was so overwhelming, Max felt guilty, even though she had no reason to be.

"I've only been back for a few weeks Chloe, and I was planning on contacting you soon, I've just been busy." Not technically a lie, although she had mostly been putting it off for fear of what Chloe may think of her, rather than her admittedly heavy workload. "I met Rachel pretty soon after I left actually. I haven't been anywhere near Arcadia since I left."

"Oh. I guess she only moved to Arcadia Bay a few years ago when she started at Blackwell, where did you see her? She never told me where she lived before she came here."

"It was somewhere in Pennsylvania I think, in this old run-down town." That was the best description Max had for the Facility's location. It's not like she'd ever been told where the Facility was, and when she left the Facility she did it in a hurry, not stopping to look at signs or maps for hours after.

"Oh." Chloe seemed a little disappointed with her answer, like she'd been expecting Rachel to have been living it large, or doing secret underground missions, not living out in some rundown, middle of nowhere town. "Even when they haven't lived here for five years, I can't escape people who knew Rachel. I swear everybody loved her. So why aren't any of them looking for her?"

"Not even her parents?"

"She never knew them. She never said what happened to them, but she all but adopted my mum as her own, so I don't imagine it was anything good. Sergeant Shithead didn't like that too much. Said she was a bad influence on me. Fuck him."

"I can feel the love."

"She was my angel Max. That fucker tried so hard to stop me from seeing her. He wasted so much time that could have been spent with Rachel." Chloe looked heartbroken, as though David was directly responsible for Rachel's disappearance. "God, I miss her Max."

"So, what happened? Did she say anything before she left?" Max asked. "It sounds like she just vanished off the face of the earth…"

This was all sounding eerily similar to Max, and it was making her antsy. Max was in control of the situation enough that it wasn't going to trigger a panic attack, but if she hadn't been then Max felt like she may have already had one at this point.

"I don't know Max. I wish I did. She said she had met someone who changed her life, and then disappeared. She didn't even tell me who." Chloe was on the verge of sobbing, finally talking to someone and letting it all flow out of her. It felt kind of good, in its own fucked up way, Chloe thought, like she was being purged of the negative emotions.

Max felt kind of guilty about it in hind sight, but after Chloe said that someone changed her life, that there was some kind of potential motivation for Rachel to disappear, Max felt relieved. The worry that had been slowly building as she heard more and more about Rachel's disappearance had subsided, and she could be there for her friend. After being gone for five years, Max certainly felt like she owed it to Chloe now.

Over the last year, before Max had moved back to Arcadia Bay, Lana had woken up with night terrors more times than she could count. One of the things that had helped them calm down the quickest was hugs. It wasn't the same problem, it hardly came close to being similar, but Max hoped that it might work out the same.

Max shuffled along the edge of the bed and embraced Chloe in a hug. She heard Chloe's breath catch and her shoulder freeze, and for a second Max was about to pull back, thinking that Chloe didn't want this. However, before she could, Chloe's own arms came around her and she buried her face in Max's shoulder and just let the tears fall.

Max wasn't sure how long they stayed that way, sitting on the edge of Chloe's bed, and holding each other like it was the last time – it could have easily been an hour for all Max knew, but eventually Chloe's grip started to loosen before she eventually let go. Chloe lay down and stared at the ceiling.

"Could you put on that music now please Max? I think I need to just lie here for a bit and smoke." Chloe said, her voice cracking a little as she reached over and lit a cigarette.

"Sure thing, Chloe." Max pushed herself off Chloe's mattress and walked over to Chloe's cd player, carefully avoiding tripping on any of the junk that was just lying around on the floor. Reaching the player without breaking her neck, Max opened it up and put the disc in. She wasn't sure why, but the player looked somewhat familiar to her. It took a second to some to her before she realised why. It was William's old cd player, which had been kept in his and Joyce's bedroom. Max had only seen it a few times, and all so long ago, which was why, she realised, it took her so long to figure out.

Turning the volume down a touch – because seriously Chloe, who actually puts the volume all the way up to ten? – Max put on the first track and went over to lay back down with Chloe. Neither of them said anything – after the highly emotional conversation they just had neither of them felt like talking – but the silence wasn't strained. They just laid back and watched Chloe's smoke lazily spiral up to the ceiling as the music washed over them. A narrow beam of afternoon sun made its way through Chloe's open window, just managing to bathe the bed in warm sunlight. Max was glad that, even after five years apart, they could just lie together in silence, content just being in each other's –

Something grabbed Max's hand. She froze. Suddenly, she wasn't lying on Chloe's bed, relaxing with Chloe. It was dark. Flashes of pain across her back. Someone was holding her down. She couldn't move, why couldn't she move?

Taking her free hand, Max flailed desperately with it, punching and clawing, trying hard to make whatever grabbed her let go. The invasive hand jerked away, and reality slowly started to return.

Breathing heavily, Max's eyes darted back and forth, trying to re-establish where she was. There was a chest of drawers to her right, with the drawers forced to stay half open because of their overflowing contents. Looking down the length of her body – she was lying down she realised – she saw a jacket handing over a chair back and a cd player on a set of shelves, playing some song she faintly recognised from her tween years, although she couldn't name it now. To her left was an open window, which let in a faint breeze. Dropping her gaze slightly, Chloe was sitting on the edge of the bed, nursing her face in her hands.

Chloe! That's it! She was at Chloe's house, lying down and chilling with her.

Wait.

Chloe.

Nursing her face.

Max felt her gut drop as she realised what had happened. Chloe must have tried to hold her hand. Max didn't mind being touched – or at least she tried to tell herself that – but being surprised by it when she wasn't expecting it didn't end well.

Max thought she should rewind now. Go back before Chloe grabbed her hand and be ready for it. Not hurt her. Do it before she talked. If she hadn't said anything it was like she wasn't erasing anything, no memories or thoughts or emotions, just giving herself a chance not to hurt her friend.

"Dude. Wow."

Shit. Now if she was going to rewind, she'd be invalidating Chloe's reaction. Max had promised herself that she wouldn't do that, not to people like Chloe, people who were important to her, and that she was important to. They deserved the honesty of the original timeline, to give consequences to Max's actions.

"Are you okay Max? You're just staring into space. It's making me kind of worried…"

But at the same time, Chloe didn't deserve to be hurt because of Max's stupid past. Just because she jumped at the slightest touch, at small signs of affection, at voices slightly louder than they needed to be, at bright flashes of light, at sudden darkness, didn't mean that her friends had to suffer the same.

Max's head hurt. Just thinking about rewinding through people's memories felt wrong, and she'd promised Lana that she'd never do it. But at the same time, just letting people get hurt was wrong to. Max didn't know what to do.

"Max?"

Max didn't know what to do.

"Max I'm sorry, please respond, you're really starting to freak me out."

Max didn't know wha – wait, did Chloe say she was sorry?

"Max, please…"

"You're sorry?" Max was almost more confused by that then her moral quandary. "Why? I hit you… aren't you mad?"

"No, no." Chloe wasn't mad. She had touched Max without asking, and had opened herself up to the hit in doing so – even if it did seem a little excessive. She was more impressed with Max's punch. She wouldn't have guessed that Max could hit her so hard.

"I'm still sorry. I don't know what came over me." That wasn't true. Max knew full well what had come over her, she'd reacted similar when she was grabbed unexpectedly a few times before, ever since her days in the Facility. She wished desperately that it would stop, that she could just enjoy affection, not freak out over what felt like the smallest causes.

"Seriously Max, it's fine. You throw a mean punch, it was kind of sweet to be honest – even if I was one the receiving end." She even smiled, hoping that Max would realise that she didn't actually mind.

Chloe was joking with her. That set Max's mind at lease, at least a bit. It had been a long time, and Chloe had very obviously changed, but she remembered that Chloe was never in the mood to joke when she was upset, normally she'd get cagey and aggressive instead.

Max looked up from her feet and saw Chloe face for the first time since she punched her. It looked like she had hit her just below the eye, right on the cheek bone. It had coloured red, although not from blood. More importantly, Chloe was smiling, sporting her newly forming bruise with pride.

"So, what do you think Max, looks pretty hardcore, right?" Chloe was enjoying this, in her mind bruises made her look tough.

Max snorted. Chloe's nonchalant attitude to being punched was finally getting to her, and she started to let her worry that Chloe secretly hated her for it go. She couldn't let it all go, that wasn't how it worked, but the larger part of her brain was now telling her that it was okay, and that she'd have to deal with that fact.

"Thank you, Chloe."

"For what?"

"Understanding. I promise I'll tell you why I'm like this soon." Max half-whispered. She wanted to tell her now, but a small voice in the back of her head was telling her not to, that if Chloe learnt the truth about what happened she'd hate her. Max hated that voice.

"Hey, just when you're ready Max. I can wait." Chloe had realised over the last hour or two that something awful had happened to Max. It must have, for her to be this different, this… jumpy is how Chloe wanted to describe it. Chloe figured that she could deal with waiting for a while if it made Max feel more comfortable in her new old life.

Chloe stood up, offering her hand to Max to help her up in turn. Max stared at the extended hand and took a moment to prepare herself before she took it. Chloe gripped firm and Max made a conscious effort not to freak out again as she was pulled from her seat.

Chloe marvelled at the feeling of Max's hand. She had only just grabbed it earlier before she let go, but now that she could actually feel it, it's roughness surprised her. At this point, Chloe thought, she really ought to stop being surprised by Max. This new Max was very different to the one she remembered, and she should really stop basing her expectations on the old Max. Regardless, the feel of Max's hand was odd. It had the impression lines going across the width of it, and had what felt like tiny pits spread all over the palm. Chloe had no idea what to make of it.

"Now then, that punch was pretty sweet, but it still kind of hurts. I'm going to grab some ice."

With that, Chloe left the room, heading downstairs. Not having much else to do, Max grabbed her bag and headed down after Chloe, closing the door behind her as she left the room. As she was heading downstairs, she noticed a large poster hanging in a picture frame on the wall. The poster was an aerial photo of Arcadia Bay, taken from over the bay itself. Leaving Chloe to herself for a while, Max backed up to the top of the stairs and went over to the poster for a closer look. Tracing the street lines back from the beach, Max found the Two Whales, the old diner that Chloe's mum worked at, and where Max and Chloe had spent a lot of time hanging out as kids. Further from the shore, she traced out the path to Chloe's house, which she found right where she expected it to be. It was a little hard to tell because the house was so small in the photo, but it looked as though the house was still entirely white. It must have been an older photo then, Max realised, if William hadn't started painting the house yet. Looking near the bottom of the poster, Max found a production date – 5th July 2005.

Inspired by its age, Max looked for her old house, from before she moved to Seattle. If this was from 2005 then there was a chance it would be on the poster still. Tracing a line, a couple blocks over from Chloe's house, Max found it, a newer house, at the time anyway, a simple wooden house with a neutral colour scheme. Max could feel the beginnings of tears welling up in her eyes. That house was one of the things that she missed most from her childhood, and one that she'd never get back.

Tearing her eyes away from the poster before she started to cry, Max dried her eyes on her sleeve and headed downstairs to re-join Chloe. She found her in the kitchen, fumbling around with a bag of frozen vegetables, which seemed to insist on slipping out of the tea towel that she was trying to use to hold it.

Max couldn't help but giggle at Chloe predicament before she came over and helped Chloe get it where she wanted it. Picking up the bag of vegetables from where Chloe had dropped it most recently, Max took the tea towel out of Chloe's hand and wrapped it securely around the bag, before handing both back to Chloe.

"Thanks, Max." Chloe said, bring the vegetables up to her cheek. "Everything is so much easier with you back in my life." A devious thought made its way into Chloe's mind. "We should take over the word! When everything is this easy, who would be able to stop the fierce pirate crew of Captain Chloe and her dutiful first-mate, Max!"

Max gave her a gentle punch in the shoulder, being mindful not to actually hurt Chloe this time. "You giant dork."

"Arrr, that I may be, but ye love me still, do ye not First Mate?" Chloe was waving around an imaginary sword, making some kind of grand pirate toast.

"I suppose I do, Cap'n." Max responded in kind. They hadn't done this in forever, playing around as the dreadful pirate crew of Captain Chloe, and Max was loving every minute of it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Four: A Date with the Past**

"Hello?"

"Oh, hi Kate."

"No, it's okay. Really."

Chloe held the bag of frozen vegetables to her face as she and Max laid back down on her bed. Their pirate play had been fun, but they decided to lay back down again when they realised just how tired they were. It had been a stressful and emotional day, and it had taken a toll on both of them.

So now they laid back on Chloe's bed, Chloe trying to avoid listening to too much of Max's phone call. Normally she wouldn't bother, but something told her that Max would really disapprove of her privacy being breached, more than she would of in the past at least. Chloe wanted Max to tell her what happened, and she figured the only way that was going to happen was if Max trusted her.

Instead of thinking about Max's call, Chloe tried to focus on something else. She stared at the ceiling, trying to all the little marks and scrapes that had been there as long as she could remember.

That got old very quickly.

Next, she tried to focus on the bag of vegetables. Cold was supposed to help take your mind of distractions, right? Focusing on the cold didn't really work as intended. It turned out that when you focused on feeling cold, all that happened was you felt cold.

Shivering a little, Chloe looked over to see Max put away her phone.

 _Oh, thank god._

"Hey Chloe, I've got to head back over to Blackwell. I may have forgotten that I promised Kate a tea date this afternoon…"

"Kate? Like Kate Marsh?" Chloe shouldn't have been so surprised. Now that she thought about it, Kate was exactly Max's type of friend. They would suit each other well, especially if how quiet Max had been recently was any indication of how she was now.

"That's her. Why, do you know her?"

 _Wait wait wait. Did Max say tea date? Like a date? This would be good._

"Did you say date? Are you and Kate one of those cutesy tea couples? I didn't think she'd be the type."

"What? No, we're just friends, you giant goofball."

Chloe sighed a little, that would have gotten a rise out of Max five years ago. Clearly, she'd need to try harder in the future.

"So, who is the lucky person then? I can only assume someone at Blackwell would have snatched you up by now." Chloe winced at the brief look of something – fear maybe – that flashed through Max's eyes at her sentence. Had she said something wrong?

Max recovered though, powering through to answer Chloe's question.

"No one anymore. Not since I got back." Chloe thought her voice sounded a little bitter, like she was spitting out the taste of something foul.

"Bad break up?"

"You could say that." Max's voice was getting cold and defensive, she had clearly had enough of this topic. Chloe, for once in her life, made the wise decision and changed the subject.

"So, you needed to get to Blackwell? I'm taking it you want a ride."

The look of relief that washed over Max's face with Chloe's rather sharp change of subject made it all worth it, despite Chloe's now peaked curiosity.

"Yeah, that would be nice. I even asked her if I could bring you along."

Chloe looked at her, a little bit shocked.

"What, I'm not going to make you give me a lift then leave you on your own."

Chloe wasn't used to people thinking of her like that. Rachel, even though she harboured no ill-intent, had loved taking advantage of free rides, and no other relationship – bar Max five years ago – had ever surpassed Rachel in quality.

"Well in that case, I'd be happy to take you – even if you are only paying me in tea."

Max just rolled her eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Five: Tea**

Max despised the smell of tea. Over the past year she had drunk far too much chamomile, so much so that the smell now sickened her. She gritted her teeth and marched forward, however, as Kate loved the stuff.

Chloe, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn't have quite the same tact.

"It smells like old lady farts in here."

Max looked at Chloe, eyebrows raised.

"Dude…"

"What?"

Max was going to go on, say something about manners, but she was cut off before she could say anything.

"It's fine Max, not everyone likes the smell of tea." Kate was smiling, always a pleasant sight, especially with how rare it had been over the past few weeks.

Thinking of Kate and her smile made Max sigh a little inside. When she had first arrived at Blackwell, Kate had been a beacon of light, a force for good in the world that brought hope to Max's heart for the first time in five years. The way that Kate spent endless un-thanked hours helping anyone who needed it, the way she managed to bring a smile to almost anyone's face, just by being the bright person she was, it was heart-warming. Max couldn't help but want to get close to her.

Max had thought she'd be among the masses, trying to impress Kate and form a friendship, but for some unfathomable reason, people ignored Kate in favour of trying to impress the all-important Vortex Club, some club that didn't seem to do anything beyond throw parties and bribe teachers. Max couldn't understand the appeal.

As Max and Kate grew closer, Max became more and more surprised by just how lonely Kate was. It wasn't that she was unpopular, it seemed like people actively avoided befriending her. She couldn't for the life of herself work out why, until she was told that the head of the Vortex Club, Victoria Chase, apparently had it out for Kate. Something about Kate's abstinence preaching, according to Warren, Max's friend from science who had apparently been at Blackwell long enough to know all the secrets and gossip, even though he was as far removed from it all as Kate.

That was weeks ago, though. Since the latest Vortex Club party Kate had gone from a kind soul that most people avoided to a target. A video had gone viral of Kate partying, and in response people were mocking her, shaming her, and outright bullying her. Since then, the normally happy and glowing Kate had become sullen and withdrawn. Her room, normally brightly lit by afternoon sun, was now gloomy and dark, with the lights off and curtains drawn. Normally neat and organised, she had dirty clothes all over the floor and her desk was covered in random papers and garbage. The small table by her bed was covered in dirty mugs and plates, some still half full of tea.

The only thing in her room that looked like it did before Kate's video was her rabbit, Alice, who looked just as clean and well-fed as ever. Even in her depression, Kate couldn't neglect the wellbeing of another living creature, especially one explicitly in her care.

"So, you're Kate, right?" Chloe took a bite of a biscuit Kate had left out. "Kate Marsh?"

"That's me. I'm surprised anyone still needs to ask after the video." Kate's smile she had been wearing fell off again as her lips tightened.

"Yeah, I remember you from Blackhell. You were cool, one of the few things I didn't hate about that place."

Kate's smile started to return after that. After weeks of bullying and torment it was nice to hear something positive.

"So, who are you?" Kate asked. "I think I remember seeing you around campus like a year ago, but I haven't seen you since."

"Kind of hard to miss aren't I, with this." Chloe ran a hand through her hair. "Got expelled last year. Good riddance I say."

Max finished answering for Chloe, who seemed to miss actually giving her name. "That's Chloe. We were friends years ago, when I first lived in Arcadia Bay. We ran into each other again today."

A look of understanding passed over Kate's face. "Oh, you're the infamous Chloe? Max may have mentioned you once or twice."

Chloe's eyes darted over to Max. "Did she now?"

Max rolled her eyes. "You're an old, childhood friend who lives locally. The topic came up."

Taking advantage of the lull in the conversation, Max had a sip out of her mug. She tried not to make it to obvious that she didn't like the tea, but she winced a little anyway. She really couldn't stand chamomile.

"So, Kate, I know you didn't want to talk about it earlier today, but how have you been holding up?"

"I don't know Max. I'm worried and I'm scared and I feel dirty." Kate's face was drooping, she looked exhausted. "I just don't know what I can do. Will it ever stop?"

"I don't know Kate, I don't know." Max still felt worried, scared, and dirty herself. She could only hope it would pass with time. "I'm here if you need me, if you need to talk or anything."

"Wait a moment," Chloe interjected. "What's wrong with Kate?"

Max glanced over to Kate. "May I?"

Kate paused for a moment before nodding.

"A few weeks ago, Kate went to a Vortex Club party. Something happened and she started feeling woozy. Nathan offered to take her to the hospital, and the next thing she remembers is waking up in front of her dorm room."

Max took a moment to breath before sharing the next bit.

"A few days later a video started going around. In it Kate was making out with anyone she could get close to and all in all not acting like herself. And worse still, she doesn't remember any of it happening."

Chloe had to sit down. She put her head in her hands and took a breath. It was a lot to take in.

"Kate… I don't know what to say." Chloe paused. "That's awful."

Chloe stopped for a minute before continuing.

"We should figure out who's responsible, and make them pay!"

Max zoned out a little after that. She just sat back and watched Kate as Chloe started listing off ideas and suggestions, most of them completely ludicrous. It warmed Max's heart to see Kate smiling and laughing at them. Chloe had a gift for cheering people up, she had as long as Max had known her.

As Max watched Kate and Chloe joke and laugh, her thoughts turned inwards. What would her life be like now, if she had someone like Chloe a year ago? Would she be happy again? Would she still worry over the smallest things? Would she be normal?

Max didn't know the answer. But she wanted to. She wished she did. She wished she had someone, someone to hold her when her nightmares got bad, someone who promised to protect her, someone to avenge her.

She wished she wasn't alone.

She wished she wasn't alone on those first nights as she laid down, scars still bleeding. She wished she wasn't alone when the nightmares came and she returned to the depths of the facility.

She wished she wasn't alone. Was that too much to ask?

Max could feel it closing in. Her world started to go blurry, her vision was fading at the edges. Echoes of distant memories whispered in her mind. She could feel it closing in, but she was powerless to stop it. She could only run. Get away from Chloe and Kate, spare them from seeing her meltdown.

"Gotta go gotta go gotta go." Max was mumbling.

Max got up quickly, desperate to get to her room and away from her friends before she lost control. Half-stumbling, Max made her way through Kate's door and out into the hallway beyond. Her vision was almost gone, she could only see a few feet in front of her.

"Hey, watch it!"

Max must of bumped into someone – Victoria, Taylor maybe – she couldn't feel much anymore, and her hearing was mostly replaced by the sound of distant memories.

Max only just made it to her room before she lost control. The last of her vision left her in a blinding green flash, and she was drawn into her memories.

Kate and Chloe watched Max in confusion as she staggered out of the room, clearly not in her right mind.

"Should we do something?" Chloe asked. This wasn't something she was used to, her best friend suddenly deciding to stagger out of the room as if she were drunk out of her mind.

"I think so, but what?" Kate replied. Kate may not have known Max as long as Chloe had, but she still knew this was incredibly strange.

"Are you going to be okay if I go after her? I think we might not want to crowd her."

"I'll be fine." Despite what she said, Kate's smile faltered. She knew Max probably needed Chloe now, but Kate didn't really want to be left alone again.

Chloe put down her mug – she had forgotten how much she enjoyed tea – and left Kate's room. Getting out into the hallway she realised that she didn't know which room was Max's. Taking a quick look down each end of the hallway, she saw someone struggle to open their door.

Max!

Sprinting the few steps she needed to close the gap, Chloe reached out to Max just as the door shut between them. Fumbling with the handle, Chloe let herself inside.

Inside she found Max, curled up in a ball on her bed, slowly rocking back and forward, mumbling nonsensical words and phrases. It was like she was trying to say something, but entire sentences were being left out, leaving the rest sounding like babbling.

Being careful not to surprise her like she did in her own bedroom, Chloe sat down next to Max, lowering herself carefully onto the bed, trying her best not to disturb her.

"Oh Max. Poor, poor Max. I wish you'd tell me what happened. I want to help you."

Max didn't respond. Chloe didn't think she could hear her.

Chloe just sat with Max in silence, wishing there was more she could do to help her friend.

Glancing out the window, Chloe had an idea. She had a spot that would always help her calm down. Maybe it could help Max too. Being very careful not to grab Max or push her to hard, Chloe helped guide Max to her truck.

Managing to get Max to sit in the passenger's seat, Chloe reached over to do her seatbelt. Normally she wouldn't bother, especially not with her own seatbelt, but she figured that with the state Max was in it might be a good idea.

Evidently, Max disagreed. As soon as the belt crossed over her and buckled in, Max started flailing desperately, pulling at the seatbelt, causing it to lock in place as though she had just been in a crash. Chloe supposed from an emotional standpoint it wasn't far off.

Regardless, Chloe undid the buckle for Max. She didn't want to add to whatever emotional trauma Max was going through, and the seatbelt sure seemed to be doing that.

Chloe got comfortable and started to drive.


	6. Chapter 6

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Six: Confessions**

Max couldn't see.

No matter which way she looked, all Max could see was darkness. She reached her hand up, bringing it close to her face, but she still couldn't see it.

Wherever she was, the floor was wet. Not like it was raining, but more like the floor of a public pool, with drops of water finding a home between the bumps and edges of the rough concrete.

Max was in hell.

She remembered this place, this awful place. The echoing corridors and silent rooms. The harsh lights and blinding darkness. She never wanted to be here again.

Max screamed. Screamed for help, for anyone, but she knew it was in vain. No matter how hard she screamed, how loud she pleaded, not a single sound came out of her mouth.

Reaching out into the darkness, Max stumbled around until she found the wall. She pounded on it with all her might, but her now-feeble arms may as well have just brushed against it. Regardless, not a sound was made as her banged against the wall. She desperately wished she had something to do, someone to talk to, but all she had was the dark and the quiet.

Max laid down and cried.

She couldn't even hear that.

Max couldn't move. She struggled against her bonds, trying to escape before she even knew where she was. Opening her eyes to the pure, sterile white hallway, Max saw two masked figures carting her along on a hospital gurney. She was wearing her old hospital gown. It had to be due for a wash soon, it was stained a reddish-brown. Not that the gowns actually got washed, but it was a nice thought.

Max wasn't sure how she was restrained, it wasn't something she had ever figured out, but it was effective. She couldn't move a muscle. Max gave up trying – again – she just waited for them to arrive at wherever they were 'operating' today.

The panic began to set in again when she saw the doors to the operating room appear. She didn't want this, not again. Nothing good ever happened in that room. Nothing she ever learnt was worth it.

As the doors opened, she heard the corridors echo the screams of the operator's current 'patient'.

Some things never stop being bone-chilling, no matter how often you hear them.

As the gurney passed through the door, Max noticed the air getting clearer. Fresher. It was unnerving. The air in the facility was always old and recycled. It was never fresh. Nor did it smell like pine.

What was happening?

Max just hoped it would pass quickly so the operation would be over as soon as possible.

Chloe's eyes couldn't help but dart over to Max as she drove. Max was really worrying her. Whatever had happened to Max in those five years was clearly still hurting her, and Chloe wished she knew what it was so she could help.

Chloe heard the road turn from asphalt to gravel before she saw it. Shaking her head, Chloe focused back on the road. As reckless as she was, even just by her own admission, she tried not to mess around while driving. Not after what happened to her dad.

Chloe pulled into a carpark, but her hands never left the wheel. Instead her knuckles turned white as she gripped it harder. Thinking about her dad made her feel things, but she couldn't figure out what anymore. There was sadness and grief, of course, but the thought of it also made her angry. Angry that her dad died, angry that she had to deal with it alone, angry that her mum could just move on. Angry at Max for leaving. And there were probably more emotions there too, but Chloe couldn't describe them, let alone name them.

She hated that she was so angry at Max. She knew she shouldn't be. Max didn't choose to leave, in fact she had tried to stay. Chloe remembered Max hiding under her bed, trying to hide from her parents and stay with Chloe forever. If anything had become clear today, she didn't choose to not keep in touch either. Someone or something had taken that away from her. Hell, that had made Chloe angry too. The fact that something had happened to Max, but she wouldn't tell Chloe what it was. Chloe was hurting too, and she really wished Max would just tell her what happened and not play this waiting game with her.

Chloe hated herself for how angry she was at Max. She hated how unreasonable her anger at Max was. Chloe had tried to hide how angry she was today. As angry as she was, she wanted Max back in her life. Maybe, Chloe thought, Max would be some magical key to finally healing that she had been missing all these years. She scoffed at that. Chloe was too sceptical to really believe that Max alone would fix five years of emotional trauma, but that didn't stop her from wishing it. Most of all, Chloe didn't want to scare Max away with her own misplaced rage.

The glare of the sun off another car pulling out of the parking lot flashed into Chloe's eyes, forcing her to squint. Breaking her train of thought, Chloe realised just how tight she had been gripping the steering wheel as blood returned to her fingers. Eager to calm down after her journey through her emotions, Chloe's hands fumbled through her pockets, looking for a cigarette. Fishing one out, Chloe lit the end and inhaled. She breathed back out again and let a sense of calm wash over her.

In the seat next to her, Max started coughing. Figuring she must have weak lungs, Chloe took pity on her and got out of the car, finishing off her cigarette outside before she went back to get Max.

Max was still in a semi-conscious state when Chloe got back. Her breaths were small, quick, and irregular, and she was mumbling, moaning, and tossing around, looking like she was asleep and having a bad nightmare – which, for all Chloe knew, she might as well be. Chloe was able to guide Max in the direction she wanted her to go, but otherwise Max wouldn't respond to anything she said or did. Pulling her out of her seat and locking the truck, Chloe started guiding Max through the carpark and towards the small hiking trail at the base of the hill.

As they approached the sign that declared the area as the Arcadia Bay Lighthouse Trail, Max's breathing started to even out, and her breaths became deeper and slower. Her moaning ceased, and the next moment her eyes opened fully and consciousness fully returned.

Max stepped away from Chloe and spun around, taking in as much of her surroundings as possible.

"Where am I? What happened?"

Max took a breath of the fresh air, and smelled the pine in the air. Suddenly everything made sense.

"I had another episode, didn't I?" Max hated the disorientation that came with her memories. She hated how realistic the dreams felt.

"Another? Do these happen often? I was terrified for you Max." It was true, even as angry as she had been only a minute ago, Chloe had been genuinely worried for her friend.

Hell, she still was.

Max paused before answering. She didn't want to lie to Chloe, but Max was terrified the truth would scare Chloe off. The panic attacks came often and the only seemed to be happening more and more frequently as time went on.

"They happen. They're not all as bad as this one was."

"Well, that's good. I guess."

"I don't know if I'd go that far."

"So…" Chloe searched for an escape from the conversation, before her mouth ran away from her again. "Shall we continue?" Chloe asked, gesturing to the walking track.

The two made their way up the track. It was an easy and short walk; the track had been designed for families with small children who wanted to visit the lighthouse. Max couldn't help but remember her dreams from earlier in the day. Looking at the track now, the details had been scarily accurate, even though Max hadn't been here in well over five years.

It was unsettling to say the least.

Continuing up the path, Max saw no signs of the monstrous storm from her dreams. Tree branches were swaying in a gentle breeze, the sun was out, and the air was warm. It was a picture-perfect day.

Not even the slightest sign of a storm at all. It was almost like the weather itself was teasing her.

Max pushed aside her tension. Her dreams were just that, she decided. There was no point worrying over them so much.

Max really wished that she'd listen to her own advice sometimes.

"Isn't this place awesome sauce? Totally reminds me of when we were kids…" Chloe turned around, only to find Max was dawdling at the bottom of the path, absorbed by the environment.

 _Never change, Max._

She waved Max over. "Come on, slowpoke!"

Chloe's voice brought Max back to reality, snapping her thoughts away from her dreams and to the here and now.

Max shook her head and took a deep breath.

 _Focus on your sense, Max. The here and now. Reality._

She smelt a strange mix of pine from the forest and salt from the bay. Birds chirped in the air as waves crashed against the cliff face. There was Chloe, framed beautifully by the setting sun. She was like an angel. A rebellious, blue-haired, punk angel.

Now that was something Max wanted a picture of.

Max pulled out William's old camera and stared down the view finder. Not quite getting a good angle, Max knelt down on one knee, trying to get a slightly lower angle.

Chloe turned back around, curious if Max had actually heard her, only to see Max framing her as she had done so many times before, what felt like a lifetime ago. Smirking, Chloe struck a pose for the camera, giving her best "come hither" look. Not that the camera – or camera woman – could tell.

Max clicked the button and the polaroid slipped out of the camera. She gave it a few quick flicks to dry it off before she slid it into her bag. She vaguely thought about putting it inside a book or something to help it avoid being damaged just floating around in her bag, but she shrugged it off. That would only take time, and photo being damaged wouldn't hurt anyone. Besides, Chloe was waiting for her.

On that note, Max got off her knee and jogged over to Chloe, who had wandered a little further along as Max put away the photo and was now waiting at the edge of the clearing.

"And this, is my chill-out zone." Chloe declared, raising her arms and spinning around, showing off the lookout, as though Max had never been here in her life. "I come here to chill and bake when my step-fucker – pray you never meet him – gets on my case to much."

Max looked around, wondering if anything had changed in the five years since she had been here last. The lighthouse still stood there, the door chained and padlocked to keep out teenagers, the small building that someone once told Max housed a generator for the lighthouse's titular light was just as run down as ever. The map even still had Max and Chloe's graffiti, marking the location of their pirate fort.

It was like a big box department store, or a small family diner. One of those almost surreal places that didn't seem to be affected by the passage of time. Max wanted to say it was like herself in that regard, but she knew that nothing was further from the truth.

Somethings not even time travel could fix.

Dear god though, Max wished it could.

Max felt her heart drop inside her chest. Would it always be like this? Would she be going about her day normally until she remembered something even remotely related to the Facility and suddenly her day would be ruined?

Max took a seat at one of the benches that over looked the bay and stared into the ocean. She watched waves crash against the cliff and the tide wash onto the shore. She let herself get lost in it. The unexpected and random movements, that somehow harmonized into one of the most natural things on Earth.

Max felt something warm brush against her arm. Chloe had sat down next to her, and was staring into the same waves she was. The two of them sat together, staring at the ocean in silence, each of them working through their own pasts and tragedies, figuring out what to tell the other.

It was a couple minutes before Chloe said anything.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not yet."

Yes, she did. Max was tired of keeping it to herself, tired of bearing her burdens alone. She wanted desperately to talk about it. So, why couldn't she? Max was kicking herself. She hated this. Knowing exactly what she wants, and even how to get it, but not being able to do it.

She was scared. She had to admit that, to herself at least. She was scared that if Chloe found out the truth she'd abandon her, disgusted, horrified, maybe even scared. Deep down, Max knew that Chloe wouldn't abandon her, no matter what she told her. She hated that the most. She couldn't even listen to herself properly and act on the fact that she was being ridiculous.

Chloe let the silence linger between them a little longer before she started talking again.

"Look, Max, there's something I need to tell you. Something happened last week. It's why Nathan was in the bathroom with a gun today."

Max didn't say anything, but she glanced up from the sea, her interest piqued.

"I owe a lot of money, Max. Before Rachel disappeared, we were going to run away together, so I borrowed a bunch of money that I couldn't pay back, because I was going to be long gone before anyone noticed anyways."

"So, what happened?" Max had stopped staring into the sea and was now watching Chloe as she told her story.

"Frank, the guy I borrowed it off, started getting really antsy about his money, so I did something stupid. I was at some rundown old bar that didn't card me, when I saw Nathan. He was way out of it, and flashing massive bills. I thought he'd be an easy score, and I could get all the money I needed to pay back Frank."

Chloe paused, briefly being overcome with emotion. She took a moment to collect herself before she continued. Despite dreading the thought of what Chloe must be about to say, Max found herself a little jealous of Chloe. Being able to overcome her own emotions like that. Max would do anything for that level of control.

"He drugged me." Chloe paused again before she continued. "I remember waking up in his room. The freak was standing over me with a camera, mumbling something about innocence or some shit."

Max noticed a gleam of something in Chloe's eyes now. She couldn't tell if it was a tear, or perhaps some kind of zeal.

"So, I did the only thing that made sense. I kicked him as hard as I could. Got the fucker right in the balls too. I think he even smashed a lamp as he fell over."

That would be it. Max could definitely see Chloe remembering that experience fondly, even if the rest of the story had been awful. It was so very Chloe.

Chloe stopped celebrating her victory over Nathan's chance at children to continue her story. "And then I ran. I ran as far as I could. I felt – no, I still feel disgusting. It was horrible Max." Chloe shuddered and rubbed at her arms, like she was rubbing them down with soap, trying to wash off the filth.

"But it was an opportunity, and with Frank getting desperate, I took it. Sent Nathan a little note telling him to bring me cash or I'd tell the world what he did. And, well, you know how that turned out."

Max was reminded of Nathan, lying face down behind a bathroom stall, where she had left him after taking his wallet and gun. She wondered if he had gotten up yet. Probably, he had been starting to stir before they even left the bathroom. She wondered if he told anyone what happened. Probably not, Max decided. What would he say, that he got hit on the head by a mysterious assailant as he was holding someone at gun point? No, he probably kept this to himself, Max told herself.

Max let the silence between them grow. She didn't know how to respond to Chloe' story. It was horrible, obviously, but Max didn't have enough experience dealing with others to have any real clue what she should say. Nothing, however, seemed to be the right thing. At least Chloe didn't look like she was expecting Max to say anything.

Now thinking about it, Max pulled out Nathans wallet and started going through it. He had a couple different bank cards with a few different banks. There was a tiny amount of change, $1.24 to be exact. A few crumpled receipts were in the back pouch, all from a local pharmacy, although time had worn away what he had actually bought. Finally, there was Nathan's student ID. It didn't say much, just his name, student number, and a couple other insignificant details.

"You know," Max began, twirling the ID in the hand not holding the wallet, "I never had one of these before coming to Blackwell."

"Really? Did your school in Seattle not do them or something?" Chloe was a bit surprised by that, both for how out of the blue the comment was, and also for the comment itself. She had assumed all schools did them, like there was a law about it or something.

"I…" Max took a deep breath. She was going to do this. She was going to tell Chloe what happened. She could trust her, Max knew that. She didn't abandon Chloe when Chloe told her what she'd been through, there was no reason to think that Chloe would abandon her for doing the same.

"I ran away from home."

 _God damn it._

"A couple weeks after we moved to Seattle, I ran away from home. I haven't been back in five years."

Max wasn't lying, per se. She did leave home five years ago, and she had never moved back in. But it was nowhere near the whole truth. Max hated herself more than she ever had before in that moment. Why couldn't she just tell Chloe the full truth?

"Wow. That's hardcore." Chloe didn't know what to say beyond that. Just when she thought she had figured Max out, she was thrown a curveball. Max had always had a great relationship with her parents, why would she run away? Why would she never go back?

Max took another deep breath and pushed herself forward. If she couldn't tell Chloe what happened to her, she could at least tell her about her powers. She had to trust Chloe that much, she deserved it after their years of friendship, even with the five-year gap.

"That's not all. Around the same time, I discovered something. Something about myself." Max paused for a second, hoping she didn't sound to crazy. "I can reverse time."

Chloe started to laugh. It was slow at first, just a little giggle, but it built up until Chloe was laughing heartily, tears creeping at the corner of her eyes. There was the Max she had known, the nerdy little hipster that loved to joke. It was just the sort of thing she'd do, spend the day building up to some huge payoff, hoping she'd catch Chloe off guard and that she might just believe her.

"Oh my god Max. That, now that was a good one. You really had be going, you know. You never quite that good at it back in the day, I swear I would of believed almost anything you said there. But time travel?"

Max shook her head and bit her lip a tad. She didn't really think Chloe would believe her at first. Thinking back on it, this was the sort of thing she would pull in her tween years, so not even Chloe's reaction was that surprising.

"I'm not joking this time, Chloe."

Chloe stalled for a second. Max had never tried to continue the charade after the punchline before. Maybe she wasn't lying. It would explain what happened in the bathroom. Chloe could have sworn she had teleported behind Nathan, but had just chalked it up to stress. Maybe she was telling the truth. No, even then, time travel just wasn't possible. And especially not just as some random power given to a random teenage girl.

"I'll prove it." Now this Chloe had to see. "Check your phone."

"How will checking my phone prove anything?"

"Just trust me. What's the time?"

Giving in, Chloe pulled out her phone. "It's 6:50."

"Okay, now take my hand."

As she took Max's hand, Chloe said, "You know, if you just wanted to hold hands, you could have just asked."

"Hush you."

Firmly grasping Chloe by the hand, Max reached forward with her other hand and focused of time's ebb and flow. Focusing, she brought it to a brief stop, before having it reverse. Birds flew backwards, and waves formed on the shore to be carried out to sea. She felt herself being dragged, like she was pulling a dead weight through water. Looking over to Chloe, Max saw the wonder and confusion on her face as she watched time turn backwards.

It was hard, bringing someone back in time with her, harder at least than going back alone. That being said, it wasn't impossible, and didn't take much more out of her than rewinding alone did. Max didn't know if there was a maximum limit to her power. In the past, she'd found that it could be really taxing, even just rewinding a couple minutes, and she'd get massive headaches and nosebleeds. But the more she practiced with it, the further back she could go without ill-effect. She didn't have quite the same experience with binging back other people, having only done it once by accident a few years ago, but it seemed like a lot of it carried over from going alone.

Eventually, Max lowered her hand, confident she had taken them far enough back that Chloe would be suitably impressed. She dropped Chloe's hand.

"If you could check your phone again?"

Chloe, still dazed from all that she'd seen, took a moment before what Max was saying registered in her mind. Hurrying, she pulled out her phone and checked the time.

"Six thirty-seven."


	7. Chapter 7

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Seven: Snowfall**

Wind whistled by Max's ears, blocking out almost all other noise. It pushed raindrops into her face as she walked into the wind, in the direction of the lighthouse.

She was having another dream.

She didn't know why this was happening today. She hadn't ever had dreams like this before, nothing that felt so real, and so personal. It felt like she was being thrust through time to a point that was yet to occur, and being made to live it out, missing all context.

Which was ridiculous, Max told herself. She had come to know her powers intimately over the past five years, and not once had she travelled to the future – at least not at any rate different to the rest of the world.

Max wondered what could be causing the dreams. Despite never having gone to the future before, could these be tied to her powers anyhow? It seemed unlikely, her powers had always been more "physical" per se, in that they only affected reality, they had never separated her conscious from the world in the way these dreams seemed to.

More likely, Max thought, this was some kind of side effect. Max didn't sleep well, and hadn't even before she was taken by the Facility. As such, she had acquired herself a variety of different pills and medicines to help aid her sleep and quell nightmares. Some worked better than others, but over time they had become less and less effective, and had started giving her strange dreams and an erratic sleep schedule. This had, on more than one occasion, led to her fall asleep in class, only to wake up screaming.

That never went over well with her teachers.

She rounded a corner and came face to face with the doe once more. The spectral beast's body shimmered and rain and debris fell through it to the path below, a path it's ghostly feet hovered over, but did not touch.

The doe made a magnificent sweep with its neck, beckoning Max closer. Remembering what happened when she last touched it, Max approached it hesitantly, weary to get to close. The doe was clearly annoyed by Max's hesitation, and made the gesture again, sweeping its neck faster than the last time, as if to tell her to hurry up.

Taking matters into its own hands when Max refused to touch it, the doe closed the last couple of meters. She watched it approached and prepared for whatever was about to happen. Max wasn't expecting it to nuzzle against her leg.

Max had to close her eyes. Her head was suddenly full of images, memories of her, but not her own, and the visual onslaught made her head hurt. Max took a deep breath and focused, although she wasn't sure what on. As if acting on instinct, she rose her hand and released her power, bringing time to a standstill.

In that moment, the onslaught slowed to a halt, leaving only a couple of images. Max watched one, a comet soaring across the night sky, before crashing into the earth. Another, one with her actually in it, showed her and Chloe, playing together as children. She recognised that memory as her own, of the day her and Chloe met.

A third memory, a someone's 16th birthday party, if the decorations were anything to go by. The scene played on and Max saw herself sit down and open presents. That couldn't be right. It couldn't be hers. She didn't remember when her birthday was, let alone one she didn't celebrate. She stretched out longingly towards the scene, towards the younger version of herself. Surrounded by parents and presents, in a warm and comfortable home.

All to soon the scene changed again, and Max found herself clawing back, wishing for the old one to return. Instead of the comforts of what must have been her home, Max was sitting on the floor of a bathroom – not just any bathroom, Max realised, the one at Blackwell, where she had saved Chloe just today. Max saw silent tears running down her twin's face. Fearing the worst, Max looked around the bathroom stall and found Nathan, gun in hand, standing over Chloe's body, blood still seeking out of the fresh wound. Max felt empty, horrified by the sight in front of her, and hoping that these events were merely some shadow of what could have been.

The memories stopped playing and Max opened her eyes to the cleansing rain. She stared down at the doe.

"What are you?"

The doe gave her no answers, only turning around and leading her up the forest path to the lighthouse. Following it, Max found Chloe frozen in time, waiting for her to arrive. Tapping her on the shoulder in an attempt to get her attention, Max's vision cut to black and the world fell silent as she returned to the real world.

"What the hell is happening? How is this happening?"

Chloe was pacing back and forth in front of the bench as Max woke up. Something small and white drifted down between them.

Then another thing did.

And another. Was it snowing?

Max stood up, immediately reaching out for Chloe's shoulder as head-rush dizzied her.

Chloe turned around to face her. "You're awake!" She stepped back towards the bench and sat down, her head in her hands. "Everything is insane today. I get my best friend back, who suddenly has time travel powers and saves me from getting shot in the bathroom of a school I don't even attend, you keep blacking out, and now it's snowing in 80° weather."

Max sat back down next to Chloe, right on top of the small pile of snow that had fallen off her when she stood up in the first place, and hesitantly put her arm around her shoulders. This is what people did when they comforted someone, right?

She must have been doing the right thing, because Chloe leaned into her touch. "It's just a lot to take in, you know?"

Max thought back to when she first discovered her powers. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"This snow isn't you, is it?" Chloe followed up. "This isn't like some weird side effect of your powers or anything, is it?"

Max snorted. She didn't know why, it wasn't particularly funny, it seemed like an entirely reasonable assumption, at least it was from Chloe's point of view.

"No, this isn't related to my powers. In the five years I've been using my powers, I've never had something like this happen before." Max left out the fact that she had no idea what was happening in the outside world for a good four of those years, but it had held true for the previous one at least, no reason it wouldn't for the ones before.

"Then why aren't you freaking out?" Chloe leapt onto this idea, realising she could be the one who knows something for a change. "If this has nothing to do with you, it should be as weird to you as it is to me, right?"

Max hated to crush her dreams, she looked so cute when she was trying to seize the mental initiative. "Chloe. I have time travelled to some extent every day for the last five years. Very, very little is weird to me anymore."

Chloe pouted. "I'll weird you out one day, Caulfield."

Max tried not to flinch at the name, with partial success. She really hoped that Chloe hadn't noticed, because it was so nice just kidding around like they did when they were kids, she didn't want to ruin that with more focus on her past.

Unfortunately, when you're tucked right into someone, it's pretty easy to feel them flinch. Chloe looked up at Max, a worried look on her face, which morphed into understanding when she realised what she said.

"Last name?" Chloe said. "Sorry if that reminded you of your family. It must be hard, running away for so long."

"It's okay." Max lied. She was going to have to get to a point where it didn't hurt to hear her own name, Max knew, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt any less in the meantime.

The two of them sat at the bench for a little longer, Chloe still leaning into Max for comfort, watching the snow fall over the town. Max wasn't sure how long they sat there, but by time they got up a decent layer of snow had formed over path. The scene would have been so incredibly romantic, Max thought, had it not been for the underlying mystery the snow implied.

As warm as Chloe was, tucked into her own heated blanket, she noticed Max start to shiver. "Cold much?" She asked.

"Maybe a little," Max responded. "Snow tends to do that to people."

"So what do you say we head back to my truck and I'll drop you at Blackwell," Chloe suggested. "We can get out of this cold and you can do whatever it is time travellers do for fun."

"If by 'what time travellers do for fun' you mean lie down and read, sure."

"Books? You're such a nerd."

"Look who's talking, miss top of the class in _math_." It was amazing the things that she remembered sometimes. Sure, she'd forgotten her own birthday, but she could remember with crystal clarity the day a much dorkier Chloe proudly declared that she was the top of the class in math, opening herself up to endless teasing.

"I can't believe you'd hurt me like this," Chloe said, gasping dramatically. "I made one mistake six years ago, and you mock me still. Unfair, simply unfair."

Max rolled her eyes. "Come on, you big dork. Let's go home."

Max stood up, and then turned and helped pull Chloe up.

"Fine, but after that I'm making you walk to Blackwell."

"Ha ha, now get moving."

"Fineee." Chloe dragged out the word s she dragged her feet though the snow, a couple steps behind Max.

The two of them had almost reached the parking lot when a familiar face rounded the corner.

Unfortunately, not all familiar faces are friendly ones.

"Oh, would you look who it is, the quiet loner. God, don't you do anything with your life?"

What on earth was Victoria Chase doing at the lighthouse in the middle of a snowstorm? She looked like the kind of person who would be terrified of even a single snowflake ruining her carefully constructed look, as though it were as messy and permanent as a bucket of paint.

Although, if Max was being fair, she did love what Victoria had done with her hair.

Max didn't know what to say. She was awful in confrontations, at least the first time around. Thankfully, Chloe jumped in before she had to say anything.

"Hey, why don't you back off, asshole." Chloe had her fists balled at her side, and Max could see the tension in her arms.

"Oh, it's the faux-punk bitch too. I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. I thought you were still out putting up posters for that Rachel slut."

Chloe saw red. Letting out an ungodly scream, she jumped into Victoria, knocking her to the ground and holding her there.

Max had to stop this before it got worse. As much as Victoria deserved it, Max didn't want Chloe to actually hurt her. Holding out her hand, Max started to rewind back to the start of the conversation.

"Oh, would you look who it is, the quiet loner. God, don't you do anything with your life?"

Taking advantage of the photographing gear that Victoria had dropped when Chloe jumped her, Max formulated her perfect response.

"If doing something with my life means coming out here alone, in the middle of a snowstorm, to take photos of the damn weather, I'd really rather not."

Victoria stood there, mouth agape, for just a second before she closed it and marched past them, making a beeline for the lighthouse. She clearly had no experience with people who would fight back, at least in her word games.

"Holy shit, Max. That was amazing."


	8. Chapter 8

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Eight: Mid-Autumn Winters**

"Oh man, that was sweet!" Chloe declared, a wide smile on her face. "The way you just… Oh it was awesome. What happened to the quiet little Max from my childhood?" Chloe laughed, revelling in this new side of Max.

"Heh, yeah…" Max tried her best to look happy as well. Hearing Chloe lament over the 'loss' of the old Max was hard to hear. Max knew she hadn't meant anything by it, but to hear Chloe all but confirm one of Max's worst fears about herself was disheartening to say the least.

If Chloe noticed Max's lack of enthusiasm, she didn't mention it. Instead she focused on parking as she pulled into the Blackwell parking lot. Someone had actually parked in the disability spot she normally parked across, much to her surprise. She didn't think anyone with a disability went to the school, the support was so bad. Chloe had even heard rumours that the principle actively tried to discourage disabled students from joining

Chloe scoffed. She wouldn't be surprised if he was. The guy was a major asshole, and even if he did care about his school, he always seemed far more interested in his own pocketbook.

Max raised an eye to Chloe, curious about the scoff. "What was that about?"

"Just thinking about Wells. You know, I heard he tries to discourage disabled students from coming here so he can pocket any funding they would get."

"That's shitty, to say the least." Max said.

"Got that right. Just one more reason to burn this place to the ground if you ask me." Chloe had found a park, and was now trying to squeeze her truck between two cars that had apparently decided the parking spaces were more like suggestions then anything.

Max watched Chloe as she concentrated on not damaging her truck more than it already was, her eyes narrowed in focus and her tongue just poking out from the side of her mouth. Max loved the juxtaposition of Chloe's slightly goofy expression and her hardcore punk getup, and had to take a photo. Later, she'd look back on this photo fondly, with the daylight snowfall in the background rounding off the photo as a truly strange experience.

None of that mattered in the short term, however, as Max grabbed her nose in shock. The flash from William's old camera had surprised Chloe, who slammed her foot on the break, making Max hit herself in the nose with the camera.

When Chloe looked over and saw Max dazed, she couldn't help but laugh. It might have been a little mean, but who could blame her?

"Ow."

Chloe just laughed harder.

"Hey, wait up a minute!"

Max and Chloe were walking over to the dorms when Warren, Max's nerdy friend from her science class, called out to them. Max motioned for Chloe to stop and turned around to where she thought she heard his voice.

Seeing that she had heard him, Warren ran over to them. "Yo, Max, where have you been? I've been trying to reach you like all day."

"Sorry, I must not have noticed." Truth be told, Max wasn't even sure if she knew where her phone was. When you lived in the same building as everyone you kept in contact with there was not much need to have a phone on you at all times. Especially when all you have is an older phone, one which still had a keyboard instead of a fancy touchscreen.

"Don't worry about it." Warren told her, as he took a step forward, arms outstretched, hoping for an apology hug.

Max took a step back, about to ask what Warren wanted, but was interrupted by someone. He looked vaguely familiar… Justin. Justin was his name. Max was pretty sure he was one of the skaters.

"Aww, cheer up Warren dude, I'll give you a hug if she won't." before Warren could say no, Justin wrapped him up in a quick hug, before stepping back and saying hi to Chloe.

"Sup Justin." Chloe couldn't hide her smile, she was loving this. Max couldn't decide if she was annoyed that Justin had barged in and called attention to her quiet refusal to hug Warren, or glad that he had intervened.

As for Warren, Warren was confused, and a little dazed. He certainly hadn't expected that to happen.

Justin nodded to them all as he left.

"Later Justin." Chloe called after him. Max didn't really know him enough to bother, and Warren was still to confused over what happened to acknowledge Justin's exit.

"So, Warren." Max said, now joining Chloe in enjoying Warren's recovery, "Why did you want to reach me?"

"Huh?" Warren responded, snapping out of his daze. "You mean other than this freak snowstorm?" Warren gestured wildly, as though Max wouldn't be able to see the snow without him. "Do you still have my USB? I'd like to grab it back. Got some serious movies to watch tonight."

"Oh, sure. I can grab that now. Meet you back here in like 5 minutes?"

"Sounds good."

Truth be told, Max hadn't watched any of the movies on his USB. She had meant to, she was going to try and catch up on the pop-culture she had missed over the past five years, but she never got around to it, until the USB lay under a pile of papers and other random junk on her desk, forgotten about.

"Later dude." Chloe said to Warren as they went into the dorms.

"So, who was that dude anyways?" Chloe asked when they reached the relative privacy the hallway. Or out of Warren's earshot at least.

"He's Warren. He's a nerdy guy from my science class. He's good for catching up on all the stuff I've missed. He goes way overboard too, so even when I zone out, the little bits I pick up are usually enough to put together what's happened. He kind of reminds me of someone I knew before at the…" Max realised what she had just been about to say and corrected herself. "Someone that I knew before."

Chloe noticed Max's little stumble. She couldn't shake the feeling that Max hadn't been entirely honest earlier, when she said she had run away from home, but she had no idea what she could possibly be hiding. After all, if she was willing to tell Chloe about her time travel, then what else could she be hiding that was a bigger secret then that?

That being thought, Chloe wasn't going to push the issue, not yet at least. Whatever it was it seemed big, and possibly traumatic. Chloe knew she would have been pissed at anyone who tried to talk to her about her dad's death, so she figured Max would probably be the same, whatever this was.

"It would be nice if the guy could take a hint, though." Max pushed on, looking for a slight change of topic to distract Chloe from her slip up.

"Is it bad? Please tell me he hasn't asked you out a bunch of times or something weird like that?"

"It's not that bad, he's just oblivious as all hell to the fact that I'm not into him. Maybe you should tell him now that you're in the picture, he doesn't stand a chance." Chloe could hear the smirk in Max's voice, but couldn't see it, as Max was turned away from her, fumbling with the lock on her door. God Chloe wished she could see Max's face. Was she being serious, or just joking around? Chloe couldn't quite tell, and she knew this was going to keep her up at night figuring out. Max wasn't as easy to read as she used to be.

Finally succeeding with the lock, Max pushed open the door and the two walked into her room. It was the first time Chloe had seen a 'Max' bedroom in years, and they had changed drastically in the meantime. Long gone were the days when Max's walls were covered in posters and photos. Now they were bare, save for a copy of her timetable and a couple polaroid photos by the head of her bed. Her room, while not tidy by any stretch of the imagination, had always been clean, free of rubbish and dirty laundry. Now rubbish was overflowing from her bin onto the floor and there were old shirts and pants on most surfaces.

Even with those, Chloe still felt like she was missing something. It wasn't sitting with her right, some detail that had been integral to Max's old bedroom, but missing from this one, and Chloe couldn't for the life of her –

Maggie!

That was it. Max always had a plant of some kind in her bedroom, and the one that had survived the longest by far was a little succulent she had named Maggie. Seeing Max's room without a plant in it just felt plain wrong, although Chloe couldn't figure out why. It was just a plant after all.

"So where is this thing that we're getting?"

"You mean the USB?" Max clarified.

"Yeah, that."

"No idea." Max thought for a second. "I didn't actually watch anything on it, so I don't think I've moved it since he gave it to me."

Max quickly checked on a couple bookshelves that were barren are from a couple of textbooks and on her desk, which had her laptop and was covered in what looked like class handouts and half done, abandoned, assignments.

"Shit." Max couldn't see it anywhere.

Getting a little worried she'd lost it, Max started going through the various pants on the floor, trying to remember what she'd been wearing the day he'd given it to her. Damn girl pockets couldn't hold much, but they at least could fit a USB stich without too much effort.

Chloe got on her knees and started helping, unable to resist commenting. "My my, Ms Caulfield. Not even a day and I'm already going through your pants."

Max rolled her eyes. Get what you give, she supposed.

"Found it!" Chloe had picked up a pair of pants from under her desk, intending to look through the pockets, when the USB fell off them and onto the floor. It must have been knocked off the desk while Max was sifting through the papers looking for it.

"My hero."

Chloe just smirked. "You know you love me."

Max rolled her eyes, but she couldn't deny it.

"What's on here anyway?"

"I don't remember. I'm not even sure if I checked, to be honest."

Chloe plugged the stick into Max's laptop, which had thankfully been left logged on, opened up the USB, and started scrolling. There was a lot of crap, Chloe decided. It was mostly sci-fi B-movies and gimmicky horror. However, there was –

"Bladerunner! I haven't seen that in years!" Chloe copied the file to Max's desktop. "We are definitely watching that tonight."

Max couldn't help but smile. The idea of spending the night watching a movie with her best friend for the first time in years sounded really appealing.

"But first we have to get that back to Warren. Who knows what he'll do without it?"

"Yeah, okay okay- wait a minute. What's this?" Chloe had reached the bottom of the folder, and because Max had her files sorted like a madwoman, found another folder. One titled 'For Max'.

"What's what?"

"This special folder, all for you."

"A what?" Warren had made a folder just for her. That was sweet…

Oh god. Max was suddenly very nervous about what might be inside that folder. Was this Warren's new way of trying to drop a 'hint'.

"What's inside?" Max asked, the trepidation leaking into her voice.

Chloe opened the folder, prepared to close it quickly in case of the worst.

"Oh."

"Oh? What does oh mean, Chloe?"

"It's all sappy rom-coms 'n shit."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

Well at least it wasn't… Actually, Max didn't even want to go there in her mind.

Max and Chloe, flash drive in hand, wandered back down to the entrance where the boys and girls' dorms split, ready to meet Warren again. He was waiting for them by the door, messing around with something on his phone.

"Hey Warren. Here's your USB."

"Oh, thanks Max…" Warren shook his head and looked up from his phone to see Max holding out the USB.

"Thanks. Did you get a chance to check it out?"

"Not much." Max said. "We only just took a look before bringing it down. You've got some weird shit."

"I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of fine films, personally."

"'Fine films' sure does sound better than 'generic sci-fi and horror'." Chloe cut in.

"You wound me, and I don't even know your name… do I?" Warren asked, squinting his eyes as though that would help him recognise someone he could already see perfectly.

Max introduced them. "Warren this is Chloe, my best friend from years ago. "Chloe, this is Warren."

"Sup dude."

"Hi."

Warren glanced around, trying to figure out if it would be rude of him to leave the conversation yet.

"So…" Warren said, glancing down at his phone.

"We should go." Max said, taking pity on Warren's obvious desire to leave the conversation. That guy was easier to read then a children's book.

"Oh... That's great. I mean… goodbye..." Warren struggled for the right words, still distracted by his phone, but Max knew what he meant.

"See you later Warren."

"Later dude."

Max and Chloe left the way they came, heading back up to her room.

"You know, I'm a little surprised." Chloe started. "I totally had him going for another hug there."

Max rolled her eyes and chuckled. "He's not quite that oblivious Chloe."

"If you say so."

The two stepped through the doorway into Max's room. The sun had started to set, which in combination with the snowstorm, had caused Max's room to get significantly darker. The only light came from the faint glow of Max's laptop screen, which Chloe had left open when they were up here last.

"I'm still freaking out a bit over everything that's happened today Max." Chloe said as she cleared a space to sit on Max's bed.

"It's been one of those days, hasn't it?"

"You could say that again. I'm almost shot in a bathroom when you barge in, saving me with a goddam hammer. Suddenly you're back in my life, and with kickass time travel powers to boot. And then this damn snowstorm. I just don't know what to think anymore."

Max sat down next to Chloe with her laptop and started to load the movie. Chloe wasn't the only one who didn't know what to think. Max's life was only just starting to stabilize herself, she had been living with the weird and unexpected for so long that she didn't know how to adjust to it anymore.

A noise from the movie woke Chloe up. She must of fell asleep. Max would love that, it had always annoyed her when Chloe slept through movies as a kid. Glancing over to her friend, Chloe noticed that Max was still enraptured by the film. It was almost as if this as the first movie she had watched in years.

"This takes me back. Chilling in your room, watching movies all night. Those were the days, wouldn't you say."

Chloe's comment broke Max out of her reverie. "You got that right. I miss those days." Max thought for a minute. "Did you see what happened to my old house?"

"You mean the fire? Yeah, I saw it." That was one of the first things Max had done when she got back to Arcadia Bay a few months ago, check on her old house. It had really hurt to see, that first time. The house was now just a hollow shell, not fit for even a temporary residence. The walls were blackened and charred, and the roof was almost entirely caved in.

"Crazy huh? And it only happened a few weeks after you moved away." Chloe paused for a moment, with a look on her face that seemed as though she was trying to figure out if something was dream or a memory. "You know, I think that Joyce didn't even really mention it. It was as though she'd never even know you guys."

At the mention of Joyce, Ma's mind flashed to her own parents. As best as she could she quelled the images from her mind. Just the image of them standing disappointed in the doorway to their home in Seattle had been enough to stop her sleeping before, and she didn't need that tonight.

"Weird." Max said. Chloe must have been able to hear the strain in her voice, because she quietly dropped the subject.

"I'm here for you Max. If you ever want to talk or anything." Chloe said before going back to focusing on the movie. She had lost track of where they were in her sleep and conversation. She had some serious caching up to do.

It was about 10pm when the movie wrapped up. The pair of them got up and stretched, tired from sitting down so long. Max wasn't sure how they'd managed to do it so often as kids without falling straight to sleep.

On that note, Max started getting ready to do just that while Chloe hung around her room, picking around Max's few possessions. Chloe had found Max's guitar, a shitty second hand one she had found last year, but never got around to relearning to play. Chloe hesitantly strummed it.

Chloe wasn't any expert on the subject, but even she could tell that it was majorly out of tune.

Putting the guitar back down, Chloe wandered over to Max's closet and started to look through it. What did this new, grown up version of Max wear?

Almost exactly the same things as younger Max, as it turned out. The closet was full of rather generic shirts, jeans, and hoodies, mostly in lighter, pastel shades. However, in addition to clothes, Chloe also found quite a nice selfie Max must have taken after arriving at Blackwell taped to the back wall, and…

Wait.

What were those?

Were those pills?

Chloe picked up the small, palm sized container and looked at it closer. _Ambien_. She recognised that name. Why did she recognise that name? She looked at the label closer.

Sleeping pills.

Rachel.

That's where she recognised it from, Chloe realised. Rachel took the same ones.

Even more questions. Why did Max need sleeping pills? Chloe was getting tired of getting all these questions and no answers. She turned around and decided to ask Max.

"What are these for?" Chloe hesitated for a moment. Her voice had sounded far more aggressive then she had meant it to. The moment passed however, when she realised that Max wasn't giving her a straight answer.

"What do you think? For sleeping."

"Fine. Don't tell me." Chloe was getting really tired of being kept out of the loop. Why didn't Max trust her?

"Give me those." Max snatched the pill bottle out of Chloe's hand, rolling her eyes at Chloe's childishness.

Chloe huffed out a breath of air, annoyed. With a stomp of her foot, she stormed off, heading home for the night.

Max didn't know what to think. On one hand, she knew Chloe could get like this. She always could, and had far more times than Max could count during their childhood. On the other, Max was hurt. She'd had enough of people storming out of her life, and she'd hoped Chloe wouldn't be another.

Why were sleeping pills such a big issue anyway? Max had been using them for a year at this point, and they didn't seem to be affecting her too much. Sure, she got drowsy far easier now, and she'd been upping the dosage recently, but it was far better than the restless nights she was having before.

Putting down the bottle, Max made a decision. Maybe, if they were such a big deal to Chloe, she could try going without them, just for tonight.

Max laid down, and tried to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Nine: Insomnia**

Max's ceiling had 3162 brown marks.

The wood of her stolen guitar had 12 imperfections.

The wall by her bed had 27 pinholes left by previous students.

Max was running out of ways to distract herself. She had promised herself that she would try to sleep without her pills tonight, seeing as Chloe had made such an issue out of her having them, but so far all she had done was stare at the ceiling, dreading the moment her eyes shut.

It had been weeks – maybe even months at this point – since she had slept without her pills, and she could still remember in vivid detail the nightmares it had brought. Max had lived through some of her most horrible memories of her time at the facility for a second time. She'd seen the notorious pale green sheets and smelt the accompanying rotten smell. She'd heard the screams of new subjects and the defeated sobs of old subjects. She'd seen the horrible metallic faces of the workers one last time.

 _The one she killed._

She saw him again too. The way his face twisted as he hit the ground, never to rise again. His face was going to haunt Max until the end of her days.

Max looked around her room, desperate to find anything to distract herself from where her thoughts were leading her. If she didn't Max knew she'd be lying awake all night, wallowing in guilt.

As they swept the room, her eyes passed over her alarm clock, an old plastic box that may have one been white, but had now been yellowed beyond recognition.

One o'clock.

Max had been lying awake for three hours, too scared of her own subconscious to let herself try to fall asleep. This was getting ridiculous.

Max's eyes drifted away from the clock, drifting over the top of her desk. It was almost entirely empty. Her laptop was tucked under her bed, where she'd left it after the movie had finished. Her homework was all still in her bag, getting crumpled under the weight of her books. The only thing still on it, besides the alarm clock, was the bottle of sleeping pills.

What was Chloe's problem with sleeping pills?

Max couldn't figure it out. What reason would someone have to get angry over someone else's medicine?

As she thought about it, the more Max realised how stupid she was being. Why was she doing this? Just because Chloe got upset by some sleeping pills? Chloe didn't know what had happened to her. Chloe didn't know what she went through. Chloe didn't know why she needs them.

Having talked herself out of a sleepless night, Max stood up and tipped a couple of pills out onto her hand. Too tired to bother with water, Max swallowed them dry. Already starting to feel their effects, Max did the cap back up and laid back down, sleep taking her instantly.

A sound from outside Max's door startled her from her sleep. Even though she was awake, Max remained still and silent.

Another sound came from beyond Max's door. Some kind of knock, like the sound of wood on bone.

A third sound. Now certain that someone was waiting behind her door, Max slowly started moving, careful not to let the springs of her mattress squeak. She reached down the side of the bed, where it met the side of the desk. Bringing it back up, in her hand she held her gun, a small pistol that she'd gotten shortly after her time in the facility.

Now armed, Max lay in wait, careful not to shift her balance, for fear of giving away her readiness. Surely, whoever was on the other side of the door would be making their move any second now.

One more sound. Another knock. This one was accompanied by a voice.

"Max?"

Max recognised the voice. It was soft and quiet, and sounded almost like it regretted asking.

Kate's voice.

Of course it was Kate.

Max put the gun back in its hidden holster, ashamed that she'd pulled it out in the first place. As she stood up to answer the door, she heard a small sigh, and footsteps heading away from her room. Had Kate thought she wasn't going to answer her?

"Just a second Kate, I'm coming!"

The footsteps stopped. Max opened her door and saw Kate turning back around.

Seeing Max, Kate gave a weak smile, tears still running down her face. "Good… good morning Max."

"Good morning Kate." Max replied, desperately hoping her voice didn't give away the fact that she had almost pulled a gun on her friend. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yes please." Kate was a quiet girl to begin with, but now in the early hours of the morning, her voice was especially timid.

Max stepped back from the door and sat on the edge of her bed, motioning for Kate to join her. Max handed her a tissue as Kate sat down, who took it graciously, wiping away the tears from her eyes and taking a moment to compose herself.

"What happened?" Max asked. Even ignoring the tears, she assumed Kate wasn't knocking on her door at three in the morning for a simple chat.

"I had a nightmare." Kate said, a little sheepish, as though her nightmare didn't warrant Max's time.

Max was quick to dispel that notion, however. "That's awful. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Will it help?" Kate responded, her voice giving away her worry. "I don't want to have to go through it again if it won't."

Max winced. That sentence hit a little too close to home. She remembered nights like that, where the debate over just telling someone about her dreams could keep her up alone, even ignoring the dreams themselves.

"I'm not sure…" Max began. "It does for some people."

"Did it help you?"

Kate was the only person at Blackwell who Max had told any of what had happened to her. She didn't know it all, not even close, but after Kate had come to her about the video, Max shared her own past trauma, hoping to let Kate know she wasn't alone, that there was someone else she could come to with her troubles.

And, for the most part, it seemed to have helped. Kate was coming to her when she had problems, and Max helped her work through them, using her own experiences wherever possible.

"It did for a while, especially soon after it happened."

"I guess I will then." Kate still didn't seem particularly keen to revisit the dream. "So, it started out fairly normally…"

Kate was walking down the aisle, following her parents as they looked for an available pew. Normally she preferred to sit near the middle of the church, not so far back that she couldn't hear, but not so far forward that she was near the centre of attention.

Today, however, her mother had decided that they should be sitting near the front, so like the good family they were, they followed her lead. As they crept through the aisle, Kate could hear the voices behind her whisper. She tried not to eavesdrop, but she could her little snippets of conversation.

"Is that…"

"Didn't she…"

"I heard she…"

They were talking about her. Kate could tell. She tried to turn around, get a look at their faces, but they had none. Instead, there was just an inky black void, the darkened lens of a camera.

Kate felt her skin crawl as she turned back to face where she was going. Her mother had her held by the wrist, her grip tight. Kate couldn't break free, and couldn't stop herself from being dragged to a pew, the very front row in fact.

As they sat down, the priest began his service. "Gathered friends, we are here today to mourn the passing of Kate Marsh. Although she embraced sin towards the end of her short life, we should remember her as she was, a young, innocent soul, eager to help anyone in need."

Kate looked around fervently. Did these people think she had died? They were all dressed in funeral garb, and her family had tears in their eyes.

"I'm not dead!" Kate yelled out. No one responded, or acted like they even heard her.

Was she dead?

"Ms Marsh, the body please." The priest said.

What?

Why was the priest calling for the body – her body? What was in the casket already?

Kate's mother stood, gathering Kate in her arms as she did. Kate tried to resist, to squirm away, anything, but her body refused to move.

"Anyone? Please! I'm not dead!"

No one listened. Kate was helpless to do anything as her mother carried her up to the casket. As she walked, Kate's eyes darted around furiously, desperate to make eye contact with anyone, to beg for help, but no one would meet them.

As they approached the altar, Kate saw the memorial board they had put up. However, instead of the childhood photos that she'd have expected to be there, there were strange pictures, black and white, of someone, clearly her, lying half-conscious, her wrists bound together with duct tape.

Kate didn't have time to ponder the photos, however, as her eyes came to rest over the coffin. Inside was another Kate Marsh, this one pristine and white, even giving off a slight glow. As Kate stared at it, the Other Kate moved its head, turning to face her directly.

Its eyes opened and out poured a golden light, terrifying both in its focus and raw display of power.

"You. You did this to me." The Other Kate's voice was ethereal and haunting, some horrifying mix of a choir of angels and the howl of a banshee. "We were clean, we were me! You broke us!"

The Other Kate let out a ghastly, otherworldly scream that echoed through the church, shattering the stained-glass windows and letting in gale force winds that blew through the church, throwing around shattered glass and tearing the photos off the board.

Despite the glorious golden glow emanating from Other Kate and the myriad of colours that the shards of glass flying through it caused, nobody else in the church reacted. It was as though nothing was happening. Kate's mother lowered her into the coffin, seemingly intent on fitting both Kate's in together, as though one would magically merge into the other and they would become whole again.

However, it quickly became apparent that she wouldn't fit. The priest leaned over to whisper in her mother's ear.

"She's not going to fit. Just throw her away." The priest glanced over at Kate. "It's only the sinful, unclean one anyway. No reason to tarnish the old Kate with her."

Kate's mother took a single look at Kate, hers eyes as hard as stone. "You're right. No reason at all."

Kate's mother dropped her, and as Kate felt her back crash into the floor, she woke up.

"Wow." Max didn't know what to say. The dream Kate described had been intense, to say the least.

"It was awful." Kate was leaning into Max, holding her pillow in her arms as she curled around it.

"It sounds it. Do you know what caused it? A dream that intense, something must of, right?"

"I… I think so…" Kate stammered. "I got an email yesterday… from my mother. They found out about the video."

"Oh no…" Max didn't know Kate's family, but from what she'd heard of her friend's conservative upbringing, there was no way the video would have gone over well.

Kate didn't say anything in response. She just sat there and tried not to let the tears get the better of her.

"Did I tell you, when I escaped and tried to go home, my parents didn't even know who I was? They didn't remember me at all."

"Oh, Max…"

"No Kate, don't feel sorry for me, I'm not done." Max cut her off before she could make this about Max. "I say, who needs them. What good is a family if they won't stick with you, right?"

"I guess so, but aren't they still, like, your family. Shouldn't you love them unconditionally or something?" Even after everything hers had said to her, Kate couldn't shake the thoughts she'd been raised with.

"I'd love to Kate, but if they can't stick by you and love you unconditionally, why should you do the same for them?" Max took a breath and calmed herself a little. This was a topic she could get quite passionate over. "Who needs family anyway, Kate. We've got each other now, don't we? And as far as I'm concerned, that's enough for me."

"Wow." Kate's face was easier to read then an open book, the mixture of shock and adoration that was as flattering as it was heart breaking. "Thank you, Max. It means so much to me to hear you say that."

"You're welcome Kate. Do you think you're feeling up to going to sleep now? We can talk more if you want, but I'm starting to get really tired." Considering she'd only managed to fall asleep a couple hours before Kate knocked at her door, and the rather heavy conversation she'd had with Kate since, Max was feeling incredibly tired.

"I think so. Do you mind if I stay in her though, I don't want to be alone tonight."

Max didn't know what to say. On one hand, Max didn't want to say no to Kate. The girl deserved any comfort she could get, and Max wasn't going to turn her away now. On the other, Max didn't want to risk Kate finding the gun if she slept on Max's bed, and Kate was in no condition to be sleeping on the floor.

"Sure thing Kate." Max said as she came up with a plan. Normally she didn't like rewinding over people's memories, at least people close to her, but she had a feeling she'd have to if she wanted to keep her gun a secret. "Just give me a second to grab some more sheets and stuff."

Max reached down to where the gun was hidden between her bed and the desk and brought it up with her pillow, hoping that Kate wouldn't see it behind the pillow and hopefully stopping her from needing to rewind.

Standing up awkwardly, with the gun hidden between her and the pillow, Max put the gun on the other side of the desk, hopefully out of Kate's view, before covering it with the pillow. As soon as it was hidden, Max looked over to Kate, checking to see if she had noticed anything.

Luckily for Max, Kate appeared to be distracted by the floor, which she was staring into, lost deep in thought. Thanking her luck, Max walked over to her wardrobe and pulled out an extra set of blankets, which she set up on the floor near her pillow.

"There we go." Max said. "You can take my bed, I'll sleep here."

"Are you sure? You said you were really tired, are you sure you'll be alright on the floor?" Kate's voice was filled with concern. Max was impressed how much Kate could worry about other people when her own life was so troubled.

"Yes, I'm sure Kate." Max said, maybe just a little too quickly.

"Alright then, thank you so much Max. For everything."

"You're welcome Kate. Sleep well."

"You too Max."

"Max?" Kate said gently, testing whether Max was still awake. She wouldn't be surprised, considering it had only been a few minutes.

"Yes Kate?"

"What if the nightmares come back? Can I stop them?"

Max sighed and sat up. It looked like Kate needed the 'full' treatment.

"Well Kate, there is one way." Max looked up to her desk, where she had dropped the pill bottle after falling asleep earlier that night. "I use sleeping pills. They don't really fix the problem or anything, but they really help you have a dreamless sleep."

There was nothing but understanding on Kate's face. After the nightmare she'd had, she could see the benefit of dreamless sleep.

"Are they okay to have? Like not on a prescription or anything, I mean."

"I'm not on one, so I think so. I haven't seen any side effects yet, and I've been using them for months now."

"Do you mind if I have one then?" Kate paused for a second. "I really don't want to see that again. I don't think I've ever had a dream so awful."

"Go for it." It's not like they had actually cost Max anything, so she didn't see the harm in letting Kate have one, especially if it helped her sleep.

"Thank you, Max." Kate reached over to the desk and took a pill out of the bottle, and swallowed it without water effortlessly. She felt the pill kick in almost immediately as the drowsiness set in.

"Goodnight, Max."

"Goodnight, Kate."


	10. Chapter 10

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Ten: Ambien is a Cruel Mistress**

 _Whack!_

Something landed on Max's face. The impact had her moving in seconds, and, still being half asleep, she let her instincts take over. Raising her hand, Max rewound, her eyes peeled on the doorway, waiting to see who or what had hit her.

Much to her surprise, she didn't see the door move at all as she rewound. Starting to think she might have imagined it, she lowered her hand and let time resume.

 _Whack!_

This time, Max's eyes were wide open to see her phone fall off her desk and land right on her face, before bouncing off and landing on the ground next to her.

 _Why was she on the floor?_

The sound of the springs in Max's mattress creaking reminded her. Kate was sleeping on her bed, having come to Max in the middle of the night for help dealing with her awful dreams.

Looking over to the girl lying in her bed, Max was glad to see she was still asleep. Ambien worked wonders, especially when you hadn't taken it before. Max remembered she got a good ten hours sleep the first time she had one.

Taking advantage of Kate's sleep, Max took the opportunity to re-hide her gun, somewhere Kate wouldn't find it and freak out when she woke up. It was times like this she missed Lana. That girl was really good at hiding things.

Max settled on her bag. She figured Kate was polite enough not to go snooping through her bag, and it was so empty anyways, so it wasn't like it would stick out awkwardly while she got something out of it.

Mx looked back over to Kate once she'd finished hiding the gun. She should wake her up soon, chances were she wouldn't wake up on her own for hours, possibly not until after her last class. Kate normally a very studious girl, Max didn't think that accidently missing classes would help her current emotional state.

Gently, Max shook Kate awake. It took a few seconds, but Kate eventually opened her eyes, blinking the sleep out of them.

"Max?" Kate still sounded tired. Max couldn't blame her, not after her dream last night. Max was well acquainted with nightmares, but the one Kate described was something else.

"Good morning Kate. How did you sleep?"

"Better, thanks to you." While she wouldn't call it beaming, Kate certainly looked brighter than she had last night.

Max moved out of Kate's way, heading to her closet. She gathered up her shower supplies. Normally, she wouldn't bother, but with Kate visiting she figured she should at least pretend that she cared for herself.

Doing her best to look somewhat awake, Max left her room and made her way down the hallway, trying her hardest to avoid her classmates. It wasn't hard to do, considering she had barely spoken a word to most of them.

The bathroom was mostly empty when Max entered. There was just one occupied shower, and no one by the sinks. Breathing a sigh of relief, Max slid into one of the empty stalls.

The hot water was wonderful, Max thought as it washed down her body. Why didn't she do this more often? It felt like the hot water was cleaning more than just her body, a weight lifted off her shoulders.

Max wasn't sure how long she stood there, just enjoying the sensation of the hot water. It must have been a few minutes at least, probably more. Giving her head a little shake in a futile attempt to help clear it of the lazy feeling the heat had induced, Max was about to turn off the water when she heard the bathroom door open. Deciding she'd rather avoid the other students for now, Max got back under the water and waited for the newcomer to get in their own shower.

"Oh, come on Victoria, it's funny!" Max thought she recognised the voice, but couldn't place the name. Courtney maybe? Or was it Taylor? Max had never really talked to any of Victoria's posse outside of the queen bee herself, so the names had never really stuck.

"I don't care Taylor." – So that was it. – "You do not go through my phone. For any reason." Victoria sounded like she was on the edge of snapping, and Taylor didn't seem to be picking up on it.

"But Vic, it's hilarious. Look at how many hits it has already!"

Wrong move, Taylor.

Victoria's voice was colder than the wind, and twice as biting. "Oh, and how many is that?" Victoria didn't give Taylor a chance to answer before continuing. "Because however many it has, I hope it was worth it."

Taylor seemed to have finally picked up that she had pushed her luck too far. "Worth what, Vic-Victoria?" Taylor's voice stammered as she realised what was happening. She had never been on the receiving end of Victoria's wrath, always safe in her position as Victoria's second in command, so to speak.

"Everything."

Max snuck a glance out through the gap between the curtain and the shower wall. Victoria had spun around and marched out back to the dorms, no doubt ready to unleash hell on Taylor, who in turn looked like she had just lost everything.

Max held back from scoffing audibly. Why did Taylor look so scared? What could a teenage girl – even one as rich and popular as Victoria – possibly do to her that was so terrifying.

Max crept back further into the shower. She still didn't feel like heading out while Taylor was hanging around, especially after how Victoria had left her. She was already an awful person to Kate – and presumably other students as well – who knew how she'd act in her emotionally charged state. Max decided she'd rather not risk finding out.

It wasn't long before Max heard the door open again. Her hope that Taylor had left was quickly dashed as she heard the girl in question start to talk.

"Well, if it isn't Kate Marsh, video slut of Blackwell."

Nope. Kate did not need this first thing in the morning. Without thinking about it, Max willed time backwards, watching as the water droplets flowed back into the shower head. Kate walked backwards out of the room, only for Victoria to walk backwards into it, before leaving again with Taylor, leaving the showers empty of everyone except Max and her mysterious fellow shower goer.

Satisfied she was alone, Max allowed time to resume. Her powers had developed significantly since she first discovered them five years ago. Once upon a time, she wouldn't have even been able to manage a rewind that long, now she didn't even need to lift a finger.

Glad that her rewind didn't make her dirty again, Max quickly got dressed and headed back to her room, intent on warning Kate that she may want to avoid the showers for a while. As she got closer to her door, Max started to her the sounds of a conversation coming from her room. Which, considering she had left Kate alone in there, was odd.

"Okay, I'll tell her." Kate's voice was slightly muffled by Max's door. "Goodbye."

Bye? Was Kate on the phone? Max waited by the door for a few moments to verify that no one was going to come out and that Kate was indeed on the phone, before heading in herself.

"Max!"

Kate's eyes went wide, as though she had been caught red handed. Her hands dropped from her face and hid awkwardly behind her back. Max was about to start talking, ask who she had been talking to, when Kate began talking again.

"Maximsosorryyourphonewasgoingoffandijustthoughtidansweritbecausetheykeptcallinganditwaschloeandshewaswonderingwhyyouwerentpickingupandshe…"

"Kate, calm down." Max began. "Just tell me what happened."

Kate took a second to breath. She didn't know why she had worked herself up like that. Max would understand, that's just how Max was.

"Chloe called." Kate started. "She wanted me to tell you that she's sorry for last night, and that she wants to meet for breakfast."

Max got her phone back off Kate and sure enough there were a good ten texts and two unanswered calls from an unknown number, presumably Chloe. It reminded her so much of something similar that had happened years ago. Max couldn't even remember what the fight had been about, but Chloe had gotten unjustifiably angry about something, and the very next morning she had rang the Caulfield's landline for hours, only to go unanswered because they had all been out of the house. When they eventually got home, they had found Chloe waiting outside, on the verge of tears, begging Max to forgive her.

"Thanks Kate." Max responded, pocketing her phone and resolving to call Chloe back as soon as Kate was gone. "Just thought I'd let you know Kate," Max said, reminded of why she had rewound in the first place. "You'll probably want to avoid the showers for a while. Victoria and one of her cronies are hanging around there."

"Thank you, Max." Kate smiled at her, and for just a moment, Max thought Kate might just make it out of this. "On that note," Kate began. "You were awfully quick in the shower, how do you do it?"

"Oh, nothing special…" Max trailed off, trying to figure out an excuse for her shower so fast it literally defied the laws of physics…

Nope, couldn't do it. Time to change subjects.

"Anyways, not to kick you out or anything, but I should probably call Chloe back…"

"Don't worry about it Max. Thank you so much again for last night."

"Any time, Kate."

Max waited a couple minutes for Kate to leave, before pulling her phone back out of her pocket and calling back the unknown number.

Chloe picked up on the first ring.

"Max?" She began. "Max is that you?"

"Hi Chloe."

"Max! I'm so sorry about last night." This was definitely the Chloe that Max remembered. "I was such a bitch, it's just that with Rachel and everything going on, I just don't really…"

"Chloe." Max cut her off.

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry about it." Chloe was clearly sorry, and that was enough for Max. "So, Kate said you wanted to get breakfast?"

"Max, I always want to get breakfast. Two Whales in 15?"

"Sounds good, Chloe. See you soon."

"Later."

Max put away her phone and grabbed her bag, heading outside to face another day.


	11. Chapter 11

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Eleven: The Two Whales**

Max sat in the last row of seats on the bus to The Two Whales. She hadn't left her dorm room – let alone Blackwell, almost at all since she arrived. This was the first time going to the diner she had spent so long at as a child in at least five years.

After how she had reacted to seeing Chloe for the first time yesterday, Max didn't want to risk breaking down on the bus in a similar way.

In an almost surprising twist, the ride past some of Arcadia Bay's iconic and memorable landmarks didn't evoke any reaction from her. Max couldn't decide whether or not she was happy with that. In all honesty, she found it slightly worrying. Did she not care anymore?

Max was so engaged in thought that she didn't realise she had missed her stop until the bus had pulled away from it. Thankfully for her, such trivialities as missing a stop were hardly an issue for her anymore.

Being careful as to pay attention to the movement of the bus underneath her, Max began the process of winding back time with a simple gesture of her hand.

Max marvelled as cars and people moved backwards in unison. As common a sight as it had become to her over the past years, she rarely got to see it from the point of view of one of the moving vehicles. It was always a sight to behold.

Once she saw the bus stop fly in front of them, Max allowed the flow of time to resume, giving herself enough of it to signal the driver to stop. Thanking the driver as she got off, Max found herself face to face with The Two Whales diner for the first time since she was thirteen.

She could almost see herself in the Two Whales. Not literally of course, the walls and windows were far too dirty to see her a reflection, but rather the building itself, standing just the same as it was five years ago, as removed from time as Max.

Max was about to open the door and step inside when she caught a glimpse of a face she hadn't seen in years. Who knew that after five years, Joyce Price would still be working at the diner?

The door opened in front of her, and Max realised she had been staring through the glass for quite some time. She quickly stepped out of the stranger's way before stepping into the diner. It turned out that it wasn't just the outside of the diner that hadn't changed. The overpowering smell of black coffee and slightly burnt bacon hit her nose and it was like everything was alright again, she was just a little girl, hanging out with her best friend at her favourite diner.

Even though it had been years since she was last here, she walked as if by instinct to the booth her and Chloe always sat in. It still had all the graffiti they had covered it in too. It was reassuring, in a way, to know that no matter what happened, she and Chloe would always have a mark on the world.

Max had only been sitting down for half a minute or so when Joyce walked over, notepad and pen in one hand and a pot of coffee in the other.

"Hi Joyce."

Joyce cocked her head, confused. "Do I know you? I don't think I've seen you here before."

"It's me, Max? Chloe's friend?" It had been a long time, maybe Joyce just didn't recognise her?

"Sorry hon', but I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh."

Max had hoped this wouldn't happen. When she first saw Chloe yesterday it gave her hope that it wouldn't. But it did. She hated that she could feel tears start to build as the memories came flooding back to her.

Max was tired.

Max was hungry.

Max was sore.

Most of all, Max was alone.

It had been four years. Four long, painful years since she had been home. Since she had slept in her own bed. Since she had seen her parents. But that was all about to change.

Max was standing in front of her parents' house, leaning heavily on her right foot, waiting for her parents to answer the door. It had taken her weeks to get here, to find her way back to Seattle. It had not been easy, but Max was home.

A shadow appeared behind the glass of the doorway. Max could feel her heartbeat start to rise. It had been four years. Would they even care about her anymore? Would they care? Max didn't care. She was just happy that she was going to see them again.

The door handle rattled and started to turn.

Max held her breath.

The door started to open.

Max couldn't hold it in anymore. "Mum! Dad!"

A man stepped out from behind the door, a stranger to Max in every sense of the word. Did her parents have a guest over? Why was their guest answering the door?

"Can I… help you miss?" The man seemed unsure of what to do. After all, it wasn't everyday you found a teenager you'd never met before on the verge of collapsing in your doorway.

"Where are my parents?" Max collapsed to her knees, her side leaning against the walls of the house. "I want to see my parents." She was having trouble keeping her eyes open, but she had to. She had to press on. She was so close, she had to see them.

"I'm sorry miss, but I'm the only person living here."

This was all wrong.

Her parents were supposed to be here.

They were supposed to be waiting for her, arms open.

They couldn't have left.

She started to sob.

Max's distress must have been clear to see, because the stranger's look of confusion morphed to one of sympathy.

"Why don't you come inside. I can get something to eat and we can figure this out."

"Okay… thank you." Max said between sobs.

With the strangers help, Max stood up and let him guide her inside. It was almost surreal to see the house again. She hadn't lived here long before she was taken, only a few weeks. It had been such a short time that she had actually forgotten the layout of the house entirely.

As she limped through, small snippets of long forgotten memories flashed in her mind. Half of a phone call with Chloe, eating dinner with her parents, getting ready for her first day at her new school.

After what seemed like forever on her tired and sore feet, they arrived in the dining room, where the stranger directed Max to sit down as he disappeared off to the kitchen. Left on her own, Max took a moment to calm her breathing. The stranger would help her find her parents. She hadn't lost yet. If nothing else, Max thought, forcing herself to stay on the positive side, she was about to be eating for the first time in days. That alone was enough to rekindle her hope, at least for the moment.

The stranger came back into the dining room, a large plate of sandwiches in one hand, a glass of water in the other, and a small stack of envelopes tucked under his arm.

"Here you go miss." The stranger said, placing the sandwiches and water down in front of her. "I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I got you a variety of them."

Max didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything, instead taking the closest sandwich and eating it as fast as she thought she could without being rude. She was so hungry.

The stranger looked down at the envelopes he had brought in with him, looking at the names they were addressed to.

"I take it you're Ryan and Vanessa's daughter?"

Max froze. She hadn't heard her parents' names in years. The fact that she was sitting her with someone who clearly knew them… It was like seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel.

Realising she had stopped chewing, Max swallowed and answered his question. "I am. Are they here? Where are they?"

"They aren't here." He replied. "I bought this house from them nearly four years ago."

Max suddenly wasn't so sure she could finish these sandwiches. She felt sick. Her only lead was gone. She may never find her parents.

"But," the stranger continued. "I still have their forwarding address. If you like, I can take you there."

"Please."

The drive to her parents' new home took longer than Max had expected, and by the time they had reached it the sun had started to set. Unlike their last house, they Caulfield's were now living in an apartment in central Seattle.

The stranger had told Max the apartment number and dropped her off outside the building. Max found herself in the same position she had been in only hours ago, standing outside her parent's door, building up the courage to knock.

This time she was careful to curb her excitement. She had been so sure she'd find her parents at the last place, yet her she was. She didn't want to build up her hopes too much yet again.

Taking a deep breath, Max raised her arm and knocked on the apartment door.

"What's someone doing at the door at this time of night?" Max heard a muffled voice ask.

The door swung open to reveal a short woman with curly brown hair and Max's crystal blue eyes.

"Mum!"

Max leapt in Vanessa's arms, overjoyed at seeing her mother. For the first time in years, her tears were tears of joy, not tears of pain or sorrow.

She was finally home.

She was finally free.

"Don't touch me!" Vanessa screamed. "Who are you! How dare you!"

Vanessa shoved Max back, who – still weak and frail from the past several years – fell straight on her back.

"What's happening, Dear? Who's at the door?" Ryan called out from the next room.

Vanessa stepped back from the door, tears streaming down her face as she ran indoors.

"Mum?" Max said, starting to stand up, intent on following her in.

Before she could however, the larger frame of her father blocked the door.

"Who are you? Why are you at my apartment? And, most of all, why did my wife run away crying?" Ryan asked Max in quick succession. He didn't sound angry, not yet anyway.

"I… I don't know." Max was on the verge of tears herself. The only thing holding her back was just how much she had cried already today. Max paused and took a deep breath, trying to calm her erratic breathing and hopefully not mess this up.

Max wasn't sure how to start. 'I'm your daughter' seemed like the correct place, but her mother had just run off screaming. So, Max tried a different approach.

"My name is Max. I came here because I'm looking for my parents."

"Oh, you poor thing." Ryan started. "Although I'm not sure how we can help you find them."

"That's the thing." Max took another deep breath, hoping that he'd remember something, anything. "You're my parents."

Ryan stared at her. His eyes seemed to pierce her soul, like they were searching for something, any kind of scrap of evidence.

"I hope you're just confused."

That response confused Max more than anything else could have.

"What?"

"I hope you're just confused." Ryan repeated. "Because if you're not, and this is some sort of cruel joke, I don't even know what I'd do."

Her dad thought she was joking? Or that she was crazy? Max didn't know what to say.

"I'm not joking, I swear."

"Look, Max." Her dad began, his voice starting to tremble. "Vanessa had a miscarriage. Both her and I are still hurting over that. I believe that you're not joking, but we've never had a child. It's just not possible."

Her parents' thought she hadn't be born? That she'd died in birth? Max wanted to cry, she wanted to curl up in her parent's lap and have them tell her everything was going to be alright. But at the rate this was going, that was never going to happen again.

"I'm sorry that whatever database, or hospital nurse, or whatever led you here instead of your parents Max, but we aren't them." Ryan's face was almost as broken as Max's at this point, he was barely holding it together. In addition to the pain of remembering the child he lost, he couldn't help but feel sorry for this poor girl. "If you like I can take you down to the hospital and we can see if they have anything on your parents?"

No. No no no. Max couldn't handle that idea. There was no way Max was going to a hospital. Not after the facility. There was no way she was ever letting someone touch her like that again.

"That's okay." Max lied. "I'll go back myself. I've already caused you and your wife enough trouble tonight."

Max could see the relief bring colour back to her dad's face. "I don't mean to sound rude, but I was hoping you'd say that." He said. "I want to comfort my wife, she's always taken the miscarriage worse than I have. Thank you for not minding, Max. Have a good night."

"Goodnight, –"

The door closed.

"– Dad."

Chloe was happier than she'd been in six months. Her best friend was here. Her best friend was back.

Max was _real_.

Chloe had spent so many years now wondering if Max had even been real. Within a couple weeks of Max moving away, her mother had stopped talking about her. And it wasn't just that the topic had stopped coming up, Max was never mentioned in a conversation again. When Chloe had tried to bring up the topic herself, Joyce had no idea who she was talking about. She just assumed it was an imaginary friend Chloe had made up to help her through her dad's death.

And she had been so insistent about it too. Eventually, Chloe started to doubt her memories herself, not quite sure who had gone crazy, her or her mother.

But now Max was here. She was here, and she was real.

Not only was her best friend back in her life, she had these cool new powers. Max could rewind time! She had saved her life with those powers. She had even brought Chloe back in time with her, albeit only back a few minutes. It was exhilarating.

Sure, Max had been a little reserved yesterday, hesitant to give any kind of clue as to what had happened to her for the past five years. And sure, Chloe had gotten a little upset about it, but that was all in the past. She had realised pretty soon after she left Max's dorm that she may have been unreasonable, although she'd didn't decide to make it up to Max until the early hours of the morning. She wanted Max back in her life, and it wasn't like she was unaware of her tendency to push people away, so she was going to make a conscious effort not to do that to Max.

That's why Chloe found herself humming happily to her music as she drove down to the Two Whales for her breakfast with Max. Even her CD's were seeming to line up, because it had just put on one of Chloe's favourite songs, coincidently one that Max had introduced her to, many years ago.

Chloe carefully pulled across a couple of parking spots and stopped her truck. Looking through the diner window, she could just make out Max, sitting in their old booth, staring into space. Chloe smirked, as much as Max had changed since they'd last seen each other, somethings never did.

There was a slight skip in Chloe's step as she made her way from her truck to the Two Whales. She was hesitant to admit, even to herself, just how excited she was for today. The past five years had been bad, but the last six months especially had been hellish. But with Max back she might actually be able to turn her life around. Chloe could see it now. They'd find Rachel, they'd make Nathan pay to all the shit he'd done, and they'd all be cruising down the coast by Christmas. As much as she hated t admit it, it had seemed impossible yesterday, but now with Max's powers anything seemed possible.

The jingle of the bells above the door pulled Chloe out of her daydreams. She gave Justin and Trevor high fives as she made her way down the diner, making her way down to where Max was sitting. Chloe's mum was just leaving her table, so Max must have just ordered.

Even though she was facing her, Max hadn't seemed to notice Chloe yet, which made Chloe very tempted to sneak around behind her and give her a surprise. She was halfway around the booth when she remembered what had happened yesterday when she did something similar. Chloe winced, still a little sore from where Max had hit her. Deciding against going for a repeat, Chloe instead sat down normally, waiting to see how long it would take Max to notice her.

As she waited, Chloe watched her. Max was staring off into space, awkwardly stiff, looking in the direction she might be expected to if she were placing an order. Max had zoned out plenty in the past, but nothing quite like this before. Looking closer, Chloe realised Max had tears in her eyes. What was going on?

Both wanting answers and for Max to stop crying, Chloe stated calling out to her, hoping to break her from her trance like state.

"Max? Max are you there?" She asked. When she got no response, Chloe cautiously reached out and grabbed Max's shoulder, giving it a gentle shake.

Chloe let out a sigh of relief as Max started blinking. She had started getting a bit scared. Max had collapsed a couple times yesterday with no apparent warning, she was hoping that particular trend wouldn't be continuing so much.

Chloe let Max clear her head and her eyes for a few seconds before she started talking. "Hey Max. Are you feeling okay?"

Max blinked. The hallway suddenly faded into her booth at the Two Whales. She must have been crying, because she could feel the tears in her eyes.

She hated it when that happened.

It didn't happen too often, but sometimes when something struck a little too close to home, Max would retreat into her own bad memories, reliving some of her worst moments. It had happened a little yesterday and had been happening a bit more frequently overall since she returned to Arcadia Bay, but normally she could go a few days at least without it.

Thankfully, it seemed as though Joyce and the other patrons had left her alone during her flashback. She hated it when people tried to help, without any kind of idea what was actually happening. It was annoying at least, and downright demeaning sometimes.

That's when she realised that she wasn't alone at the booth anymore. While she was having her flashback, Chloe had arrived, and had her hand resting on Max's shoulder, a worried look in her eye. Instead of the usual annoyance that such a look would cause, Max only felt embarrassed. She felt her cheeks turn pink as she realised Chloe had been watching her stare into space, crying.

"Hey Max. Are you feeling okay?"

"He… Hey Chloe." Max responded, her voice a little shaky. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

Max could feel Chloe's eyes running up and down her, judging whether or not Max was telling the truth. After a couple passes she spoke. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to talk about it, I'm here if you need me."

Max tried not to let her voice get to cold, after all, Chloe was just looking out for her, when she responded with "I'm sure".

Chloe was about to press Max further before she remembered what she had decided earlier about pushing people away and decided not to. "Okay, I trust you. Just promise you'll talk to someone if you need it." Max always use to have trouble talking to people when things went wrong. For her sake, Chloe hoped that had changed in the past five years, although she doubted it.

Max had half a mind to tell Chloe to shove off, but when she saw genuine concern in the other girl's eyes and remembered how, even when she was a kid, Chloe tended to have Max's best interests at heart. "I promise."

Chloe looked Max in the eye for a minute, watching for any clue that she might not follow through on her promise. Apparently satisfied, she quickly changed the subject. "So, how about breakfast? I'm starving."

Glad the conversation had turned, Max allowed a small smile to form on her face. "Chloe, you're always starving."

"Thirsty too," Chloe replied, winking dramatically.

Max rolled her eyes and gently shook her head. It had only been a day, but she was loving having Chloe back in her life. It was as if everything had finally started to return to normal after so long.

"Then maybe you should order." Max returned.

"Maybe I should." Chloe agreed, nodding sagely, as though Max had just given her the most profound advice in the world. She breathed in, getting ready to yell for her mum to come get her order, only for Max to interrupt her by pointing behind her.

Chloe turned around to see Joyce, notepad in hand, patiently waiting for her daughter to notice her.

"Oh, hi mum." Chloe said. "Could we get some breakfast please?"

"Right down to business I see. Not going to introduce me to your new friend first?" Joyce's voice lay somewhere between annoyed and amused.

"What, you don't recognise her?" Chloe began. "This is Max. You know, best friend forever, moved away five years ago, her?"

Max waved awkwardly, painfully aware Joyce saw her while she was having her flashback.

"Really? That's odd, I could have sworn she was imaginary. I must be getting old; my memory is all shot apparently." Joyce looked down at her notepad, suddenly remembering she had other customers, and that she'd need to move onto other tables shortly. "Well, I guess that means breakfast is on me. Chloe, I know what you'll be having, but what about you Max?"

"Belgian waffles please." Max wasn't quite sure how she remembered her favourite order so perfectly, but she certainly wasn't going to complain about it.

"Coming right up." Joyce said before she disappeared back off behind the counter.

"Now then, we need to talk about your powers!" Chloe said, her eyes wide like a child on Christmas morning. Max could practically feel the excitement rolling off her. It was a strange feeling, in her mind. Max's powers had never brought Max any joy, only pain and suffering. It was an unexpected but not unwelcome twist, to have someone happy about them.

"I don't know what to say." Max thought about it for a second. How much did she want to tell Chloe? Not that there was much to tell, if she was honest. "About a week after I moved away, I accidently rewound time, and I've been able to since."

"So, you've been a time travelling wanderer since you left?" Max tried not to visibly wince at the description, what the past five years could have been like. "That's so cool!"

Chloe paused for a minute as a waiter brought their food over. Max was glad it wasn't Joyce again, she didn't want to have to deal with her absence in Joyce's memories. She thanked the waiter and started to eat as Chloe prepared her next round of questioning.

"So, what can you do?" Chloe asked, the excitement building even further in her voice. "Like, you can rewind time, like you did with me, but can you do anything else?"

Max thought about it for a moment. She had never really considered the separate abilities of her powers before, mentally treating it all as different aspects of the same thing.

"Like you said, I can rewind time." Max began. "I can bring people and objects back with me too, although it can be really tiring, especially if I'm taking people or going particularly far back." She stopped for a moment and thought some more. "I can also pause time." She was going to explain how it worked a bit, but realised that describing how long she had paused time for was confusing when the entire point was time wasn't happening.

"Awesome! Pausing time? That's so cool!"

Max took a breath and had another mouthful of waffles before starting again. "There is one other thing, I think." She began. "I keep having weird dreams of the future. I have no idea what they mean, but I keep blacking out and seeing a vision almost of Arcadia Bay being wiped out by a tornado by the end of the week."

Chloe's excitement suddenly dropped. "Uh, should I be worried about that?" As far as Chloe could tell, Max was basically all-powerful. Was she actually seeing the future? After Max took her back in time the day before, Chloe was ready to believe anything she said.

"I don't think so." Max said slowly, a little unsure herself. "I've not had any of these dreams before the last few days, and it's not like there have been a bunch of storms following me the past five years." Max took another breath, thinking over what she had just told Chloe, strengthening her belief that this wasn't something to worry about. "I think they're just weird dreams. I don't know why I even bothered to mention them."

Chloe hadn't trusted easily basically since Max left for Seattle five years ago. In that time there had been one real exception, Rachel. However, despite that, she couldn't help but believe everything Max said. So much so that with just a simple explanation from Max, Chloe had gone from worried back to excited in as long as it would take Max to do, well, anything, if Max was to be believed and she could in fact, pause time.

Max watched, curious, as Chloe fiddled with her cutlery, spinning her fork around her fingers as she traced her knife on her now empty plate. Chloe's mood had changed suddenly, and although she wasn't nervous often, Max could easily tell when she was. She was about to mention it, but Chloe beat her to it.

"Hey, Max, just before we go, I wanted to say sorry for last night."

Max wasn't quite sure what she'd been expecting, but it wasn't that.

"I was kind of a bitch about your pills. I realised last night that, even though the past five years were really hard on me, they must have been for you too. It was super shitty of me too take that out on you."

Max was touched. The apology was more than she had gotten from most people in her life for the past year, and Max appreciated the change. Chloe seemed to genuinely care that she'd been shitty to Max, and she was sorry for it.

"I told you Chloe, its okay. You don't need to worry about it." Max finished off the last of her waffle. "So, did you have any plans for us today?"

"Well, I just got my best friend back, with awesome new super powers. You could say I have one or two." Chloe said, pulling Max out of the booth and the diner.


	12. Chapter 12

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Twelve: American Rust**

"American Rust." Chloe declared, her arms outstretched as she showed off the junkyard. "My home away from hell. Me and Rachel would come here to hang when going home didn't feel like an option."

Max's eyes swept over the junkyard as her mind processed Chloe's words. Max couldn't help but want to know more about Rachel. The picture Chloe had shown her, the one on the missing person posters, it stuck with Max, her face unnervingly familiar. Had Rachel really been in a part of the Facility? Max didn't remember her in the aftermath, and she thought she had met everyone then.

"Hey Chloe, what was Rachel like before she moved here? What did she do?"

Chloe paused, viably stunned by the question. It seemed odd to Max, the question didn't feel particularly intrusive.

"I… I don't know." Chloe replied. "I asked her a couple times, but I don't think I ever got a clear answer out of her. Part of me thinks she wasn't sure herself."

"That's odd." Max said, growing more and more curious about Rachel. She wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling that Rachel had something to do with the dreams she'd been having. She couldn't place why, she just did.

"Why did you bring me out to this junkyard anyway?" Max asked, steering them back off the topic of Rachel before it started to get too emotional.

"Right. Well, you have these cool new powers, and I want to play a game." Chloe paused for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell her something, before deciding to save it for later. "So, do me a favour and grab a few bottles, I have an idea."

Max raised her eyebrow, curious, but didn't object as she left to wander the junkyard in search of the bottles.

Max walked down the central path in the junkyard, between the shell of an old boat and the wreck of a car. Keeping her eyes peeled, she let her thoughts drift. She couldn't help but come back to thoughts of Kate. Max was really worried about her. Kate's depression reminded max too much of herself for comfort.

Her eyes continued to move as she thought, sweeping the area for bottles. Her eyes glanced up, and she focused, almost accidentally on the roof of the boat's cabin. For just the briefest second, she could have seen Kate up there, teetering precariously on the edge, just a small nudge from falling off.

The vision passed as quickly as it came, and Max was left with an inescapable feeling of dread. Quickly she pulled out her phone, desperate to check on Kate, make sure that what she had seen wasn't the truth.

Her heart raced as she saw a message on screen.

One missed call.

From Kate.

Her hands were shaking as she swiped at the screen, beads of sweat starting to build on her brow, desperate to hear Kate's voice and confirm her suspicions as false.

The phone start to ring.

And ring.

And ring.

Finally, one what must have been the final ring, someone picked up the phone.

"…"

"Kate, is that you?" Max tried hard not to let her voice sound desperate.

"Max? Is something wrong?" Kate's voice rang out the other end of the line. Max could feel the relief washing over her.

"Oh Kate, I just saw I missed your call and I got worried."

"It was nothing Max. I just wasn't feeling great and I wanted to talk about it." Kate said, sounding a little anxious that she had inadvertently worked Max up. "I'm fine now though." She added after a little pause.

"Are you sure?" Max asked, still stirred up by her vision. "You can tell me if you're not, you know that right?"

"I know Max. Was there anything else you needed, because I kind of need to go to class?"

Despite what she was saying, Kate was still worrying Max. Kate seemed tired to her, maybe even a little cagey. It was reminding her of how she would act on particularly bad days, where she would refuse to talk to anyone and instead just sit and dwell in her dark thoughts. Those days had been her worst, and if she hadn't had Lana there to help pull her out of them, Max wasn't sure where she's be.

Max tried to think, what would Lana do in this sort of situation? Maybe give her something to look forward too? Most of the things Lana would promise for that weren't really appropriate for Kate.

"Max?"

Max realised she'd been making Kate wait for a while and she was getting antsy about leaving. Reflexively, Max raised her hand and paused time around her as she continued to think. What could she do to help Kate?

The answer came to her as she idly watched reality fade in and out of itself, as it tended to do while time was paused, as though different objects where flickering in place.

Her power.

She could tell Kate everything. Her powers, the Facility, everything, in hopes that Kate would understand that Max had gone through similar things before, violated in a way she couldn't fully comprehend, and that would help Kate realise that she really wasn't alone. That things could get better.

That she _would_ get better.

That being said, the conversation didn't feel like something that they should just have over the phone now. In addition to anything else, her powers seemed a tad unbelievable if you didn't witness them first hand. Lunch together then. They could get together and Max would tell her in person, later that very day.

Max allowed time to resume, watching as reality smoothly phased back into its normal flow.

"Kate, can you meet me for lunch today? I have something I really need to tell you, in person."

Kate was caught off guard by Max's seemingly sudden request and took a moment to respond.

"I guess Max, sure thing. Look, I really have to go now. Talk to you then?"

"Sounds great, Kate. See you then."

Max ended the call and looked back up to the boat's cabin. Even though she had just talked to Kate and she said she was fine, Max couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Max turned back to the path, eyes peeled for bottles.

Max had found four bottles, which she figured should be enough for whatever Chloe had planned. She started to wander her way back to Chloe, taking care to avoid the various bits of broken glass and rusted scrap metal.

As she walked, she noticed a small building out the corner of her eye. Surprised she didn't she it when she went past it the first time, Max stepped inside, curious. The building was filled with all sorts of stuff, some of it junk scavenged from other parts of the junkyard, the rest clearly brought in home.

The graffiti on the wall made it pretty clear who had set it all up. This had been Chloe and Rachel's hideout.

Max felt weird invading this personal space. It seemed sacred almost, a monument to Chloe and Rachel's relationship.

" _Max."_

Max heard her name echo off the concrete walls of the hideout. The voice sounded faint and ethereal, like it almost wasn't there. It definitely wasn't Chloe, and Max was sure they were alone in the junkyard.

Her senses on high alert and her mind screaming danger, Max turned around slowly to face back towards the door, careful not to disturb whoever – or whatever – said her name.

" _Max."_

The same voice again, a little louder this time, but still no more than a whisper.

A doe, ever so slightly transparent, its hooves not quite touching the ground.

The same one from her dreams.

Max instinctively took a step back, hesitant to get to close after what happened when she touched it in her dreams. Not to be deterred, the doe flicked its head dramatically, directing her attention down one of the paths through the junkyard, leading her close to a clearing at the junkyard's edge. Max just steered at the doe is it trotted in the direction it indicated.

Half way down the path, the doe paused, looking over its shoulder, checking if Max was following.

" _Max, please…"_

That voice again. Max tried desperately to place it, because the voice was ever so slightly familiar.

"What are you?" Max asked. "Why were you in my dreams?"

The doe didn't answer. Instead it beckoned her to follow it again, and continued to trot down the pathway, until it came to a stop near the end of the path, surrounded by several old billboards and the husk of a washing machine.

"Why did you lead me here? It's just more junk." Max wished that just for once in her life, something would be simple.

Unsurprisingly, considering its track record, the doe didn't answer. It just stood there, staring Max right in the eye. Max could swear there was a tear in its eye. The doe took a step forward and put its head against her hand, before she could pull herself away or stop it.

Max was beset by an onslaught of memories. They flashed past her quickly, barely lasting long enough for Max to actually pick out what was happening in them.

A comet crashing to earth in the dead of night.

Chloe and her pretending to be pirates in the woods surrounding the lighthouse.

Max doodling in the margins of her notebook, ignoring her teacher.

" _Max…"_

A very different Max, celebrating her 16th birthday, surrounded by friends and family.

" _Max…"_

The memory snapped away from Max, even as she desperately tried to cling to the image, even if it was a lie.

Max was standing in a black void. As she stared into it, a figure started to form. Slowly at first, glowing green particles, bright enough to make Max shield her eyes, started to coalesce and merge into a single form. Soon, the particles stopped moving and settled into their final shape.

Max wasn't sure if she'd have been able to tell without the help of the posters Chloe had spread all through out Arcadia Bay, but in front of her stood Rachel Amber.

" _Save me."_

"Save you? Save you from what?" Max asked. "The facility is gone. We're safe now."

Suddenly, the void surrounding Max flashed back to the junkyard. Rachel pointed at Max's feet.

" _Save us."_

There was dirt in Max's fingernails.

That was the first thing she noticed when she woke up.

Standing up, Max looked around at her surroundings. She was where the doe had touched her in the junkyard. It seemed as though almost no time had passed since she had been sucked into whatever dreamscape the doe had brought with it.

Or was it really the doe?

Was it really Rachel?

What would it mean if it was? Was Rachel a ghost or something?

Looking around some more, it seemed as if someone had been clawing at the dirt at her feet. Looking back at her nails, Max realised it had been her.

Why? She certainly didn't remember doing it, and she hadn't gotten very deep at all before giving up, judging by the size of the hole.

These dreams, or visions, or whatever they were, were getting weirded and weirder.

She was going to have to tell Chloe about this. If that was Rachel, she deserved to know.

Thinking of Chloe, Max remembered why she was here in the first place. She doubled checked that she had some bottles in her bag, then headed back off down the path, going to meet Chloe back near the main gate.

Her walk back to Chloe was thankfully uneventful, a pleasant change of place from everything else that had happened in the junkyard so far.

"Yo, Maximus! You took a whi – are you alright?" Chloe said, noticing the look on Max's face. "You looked spooked."

"I'm fine Chloe." That was mostly the truth. "I just need to process it for a minute, I'll tell you soon."

"Process it? What happened?" Chloe was still getting use to all the weird supernatural stuff Max seemed to have got caught up in.

"I just had another weird vision. Nothing to worry about." She hoped not anyway.

"That explains why it took you so long to find empty bottles in a junkyard." Max could hear the joking smirk in Chloe's voice. "If you need to talk about it at all, I'm all ears." Chloe said, her tone slightly more serious.

"Thanks Chloe." Max shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling a little bad that Chloe was offering her comfort for this, when she would probably be comforting Chloe when she found out what Max needed to tell her. "So, about these bottles…"

Max still didn't know what Chloe had planned but, eager for a distraction from what had just happened, was curious to find out.

"We," Chloe began, very matter of fact, "are going to test out your powers in a fun and exciting way."

"Are we now?" Max replied, one eyebrow raised. "And how are we going to do that?"

"With my little friend here." Chloe declared, pulling out her stolen revolver with a flourish that suggested Chloe had far more experience with a gun then she really did.

Max was incredibly glad that Chloe's showmanship hand ended with the barrel pointing to the ground. Now a little ashamed to admit it, Max would not have been surprised if Chloe had put on some kind of James Bond act and pointed it at her.

And if she had done that…

Max shuddered to think of what she might have done. Would she have gone into shock, had another awful flashback episode? Would she have responded in kind and start to actually fight Chloe before realising who she was?

Max's life recently had been filled with bad luck for the past many years. However, after yesterday and reuniting with Chloe, it finally felt like it was turning back around. However small it was, this felt like more good luck after years of bad. Max hoped tis was a sign her life was changing for the better, but there was a voice lurking in the back of her head telling her this wouldn't last.

"A gun?" Max asked, curious where Chloe was taking this.

"Yeah!" Chloe replied, excited by Max's curiosity. She had been expecting Max to resist more. Chloe realised once more just how much her best friend had changed over the last five years."

"I'm going to shoot these bottles." Chloe continued. "And you're going to use your powers to make sure I don't miss a single shot."

Max couldn't help but smirk. She wasn't even going to need to rewind for this.

"Go ahead." Max said, stepping behind Chloe so she could look down the barrel of her gun without seeming suspicious.

Thrilled that Max was on board so easily, Chloe lifted her arm and took aim.

"Wait." Max stopped her. "You're way off."

Max stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Chloe from behind, holding Chloe's arm and leaning over to see down the revolver's barrel.

"Here." She said. "You're a bit high, and way too far left." Gently, she pulled Chloe's arm in the opposite directions to correct her aim.

Chloe was barely listening. All she could focus on was the tingle of electricity going down her spine, and the warmth that Max was emanating. Chloe normally liked to lie to herself and say that she was calm and in control. She wasn't sure even she could believe that at the moment.

"You get that?" Max asked.

"Uhh…" Chloe still having a little trouble forming words and only faintly aware that Max had said something.

"Chloe?"

The sound of her own name on Max's voice snapped Chloe out of her daze. She was suddenly very glad Max behind her, so she couldn't see the blush that was starting to form on the punk's cheeks.

It would absolutely ruin her look, if nothing else.

There was no way she was falling for Max, was there?

"Yeah, I got it Max." Chloe replied, having no idea what Max had said.

Pleased that Chloe had responded, Max unwrapped herself from Chloe and stepped back, giving her the space to take her shot. Max hears a small bang as Chloe pulls the trigger and watches with pride as the bullet hits the bottle, right in the centre.

"Nice!" Chloe declared. "How many rewinds did that take you Max?"

Max hid her smirk before Chloe finished turning back around to face her.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Max replied, doing her best from keeping her smirk from returning and giving away the truth.

"Alright then, don't tell me." Chloe said, although there wasn't any malice in her voice. "Now then, next bottle!"

The next several bottles went in a similar manner. Max didn't have to rewind once, Chloe hit each bottle on her first try. She continued holding Chloe and physically lining up her shots, not entirely oblivious to the effect it was having on the girl.

After firing the third bottle in a row clean off the plank, Chloe was forced to admit to herself that maybe, just maybe, she did have a small crush starting to form on the shorter brunette who made her heart skip a beat when she held her.

Just maybe.

Maybe a lot.


	13. Chapter 13

**Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm**

 **Chapter Thirteen: The Dealer**

A man was stalking the edges of the junkyard.

Max wasn't sure who it was, but she had seen him walk past a gap in the trees behind Chloe's impromptu shooting range three times now. She narrowed her eyes. Something was up.

Ma stepped back from Chloe, letting her take shots on her own as Max watched the gap in the trees, looking out for the man.

Chloe shot the gun, missing for the first time now that she didn't have Max's guidance. Not a moment later, Max saw the man cross the gap a fourth time. She was not liking this. Max reached down to her side, opened her bag, and rested her hand on top of it.

"So, you going to rewind or what?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, just a second." Max responded, lifting her arm in preparation, only to instead bring it to her nose.

Bringing her hand back down for her nose, she looked down to see blood. Her nose was bleeding.

Max tried very carefully not to panic. It had been years now since she had last suffered physical consequences from her powers beyond fatigue, and her recent visions – if they were even caused by her powers. Why was it suddenly starting again now?

Not only had it started again, Max noted faintly as she started to lose her balance, it was getting worse. She was faintly aware of Chloe dashing over to catch her as she fell, then she wasn't aware of anything at all.

Max's head hurt.

She couldn't tell where she was or what was happening.

Or who she was.

She didn't feel like herself, that was for sure.

Max looked around. She was in an all too familiar room, unnaturally clean and bright, with white walls that reflected light in such a way that looking at them directly almost blinded her. There was the heavy odour of sanitizer in the air, so much so it nearly made it hard to breath.

She went to move around, get a bearing of her location, only to find her legs were restrained. Looking down, she saw she was strapped to some kind of trolley. Horrified, Max realised where she was.

The Facility.

She didn't recognise the room itself, but it had all the tell-tale signs of The Facility. The unnaturally clean surfaces. The lingering smell of whatever they used to clean their 'subjects'. It was all coming back, and she wasn't liking a second of it.

"Ah, subject A-2." Said a man's voice, coming from just outside of Max's field of view. "I hear you've been giving some of my colleagues' trouble."

Who was A-2? Max was pretty sure she'd never met anyone going by A-2.

"Now, while I'd love it if we could just have a little chat about this and send you on your way, we both know that if I did that you'd just be back here for another talk tomorrow." The voice paused, as though considering its options. "I've been told a more… permanent… solution has been called for. Would you happen to know what that is, A-2?"

Max gritted her teeth. There was no way she was letting this mysterious interrogator get any satisfaction out of a response.

"Fuck you!"

The words came out of Max's mouth, but it was not her voice. She hadn't even wanted to talk, but apparently this body had different ideas. The voice was raspy, like she had been without water for several days. Even so, it still managed to have a slightly melodious ring to it.

"There's that fighting spirit, A-2. What a shame for it to only some out at the end." Unexpectedly, Max felt the restraints holding her down fall loose around her. "Come now A-2, face the end with some dignity."

Utterly not in control of her own movements, Max stood up and turned around to face her tormentor. He was a tall man, but not particularly wide. He had an entirely average face, bar a faint but noticeable scar leading from his left cheekbone, across his lips, down to his right jaw.

Max never learnt the names of the people who worked at The Facility, but this was a face she recognised, and knew to fear. He was responsible for punishing The Facility's victims, and rumours had it that he was also an executioner, responsible for the death of any 'subject' that got out of line.

"Big mistake, monster." The raspy voice came from Max's throat once more without permission. Max could hear a sort of sick joy in it too. She may have feared the executioner, but the voice invading her body sent shivers down her spine.

The executioner raised his dagger – a roughly cut chunk of black stone, from what she could see, pointing it straight at Max's chest. Before he could do anything more however, Max raised her hand, ready to pause time and get out of the dangerous situation.

That wasn't what happened.

Max raised her hand, and focused her power into it, feeling it build up in her finger tips, twisting and pulling its way through her veins.

However, instead of pulling time to a standstill, Max felt herself growing stronger, reinvigorated by her powers somehow.

Worried by the lack of time travel, Max looked back up to the executioner, terrified of how close that dagger would be.

Only to find instead of lunging towards her with a dagger, he was convulsing on the ground, a ferocious beam of black light streaming from his chest into her outstretched hand.

Max could feel her tired muscles grow stronger as the beam sapped the strength out of the executioner's body. His convulsions were starting to get less and less erratic as they slowed down until eventually –

They stopped.

Frank Bowers was not a religious man. He doubted anybody in his line of business was. Drug dealers tended to eschew things like morality in favour of profit, and that tended not to sit well with most gods.

It was said profit that lead Frank to American Rust on a crisp Tuesday morning, time he would have much rather spent getting breakfast at the Two Whales. He had, in fact, been about to do just that when he had seen Chloe's beaten up truck leave the same place. So rather then pulling up and having a nice breakfast, Frank found himself turning around in the car park and following Chloe Price.

As Chloe went into the Junkyard, Frank pulled up behind it and decided what he was going to do. He actually kind of liked Chloe, and didn't want to hurt her, but on the other hand she owed him $3000. That wasn't the kind of money he could just give away like it was nothing – he had a business to run after all. He ended up pocketing a switchblade, figuring he could wave it around and scare her into getting him his money.

Giving Pompidou a pat on the head as he left his R.V, Frank started to make his way over to the Junkyard. He could hear the pops of a gun in the distance. He smirked as he realised Chloe must have set herself up a shooting range. That kid really did remind him of himself sometimes.

Frank reached the edge of the Junkyard and could see Chloe's truck though the piles of trash. The sight of her beat-up truck reminded Frank that they might not be alone, and it wouldn't pay to have someone interrupt them mid-talk. With that in mind, he prowled around the edge of American Rust, circling it a couple times before walking down to make sure no one was working at the switching station on the railway tracks nearby. Satisfied, Frank turned back around and headed back up to the Junkyard.

Frank rounded the corner and saw Chloe sitting next to another girl on the hood of a wrecked truck. Frank hesitated for a moment, considering that he had just checked that they would be alone, but decided that if they were friends with Chloe, they might be able to talk some sense into her and convince her to give him his money.

Frank smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.

"Price!" Frank called out.

Frank saw her turn her head and curse under her breath.

"Nice little set up you got going on out here." Frank gestured to the bottles that the girls must have been shooting. "Kind of reminds me of when I was a kid."

"Dude, we're nothing alike." Chloe responded, although Frank could see on her face that she didn't believe it herself.

"Really? We both need money." Frank said, forcing himself to be as intimidating as possible. "In fact, you need it so bad you owe me a shitload."

"You'll get your money." Chloe replied quickly. "Now, can we do this another time. I'm kind of busy right now."

Frank was tired of this shit. He had been trying to get his money nicely for months now and it wasn't working. It was time for a new approach.

"No no no Chloe, we're going to do this now. I'm done with you ignoring this."

Frank reached his hand down to his pocket, planning on pulling out the knife, only to be stopped by a loud bang. Chloe was no longer alone, standing next to her was an average-height brown haired girl in somewhat plain clothes. That was the only ordinary thing about her. She looked deathly seriously, with her eyes as hard as stone, holding a gun with both unshaking hands, the barrel still smoking.

"Hand away from the knife, or the next one won't miss." The words would have been almost comical coming from her quiet, soft-spoken voice had it not been for the pistol pointed straight at his chest.

Frank barely had time to question how she knew he had a knife as he raised his hands and took a step back from the girls. Frank hadn't been the brightest kid at Blackwell, but he could tell when a situation had gone south in a big way. Normally he wouldn't feel threatened by a kid with a pistol, they rarely had the nerve or skill to do serious damage, but this one was different. Maybe it was the look in her eyes, but Frank believed her threat.

That being said, Frank also wasn't one to let an opportunity go to waste. Maybe he could still get his money.

"Look, I just want what she owes me." He said, trying his best not to convey either his fear or his anger.

"Frank then, I assume?" The girl asked, although it wasn't really a question. "You'll get your money. Now leave."

There was something in her voice, Frank decided. It was powerful. Terrifying.

And it was familiar.

And so, as he slowly backed away from the girls, back towards his RV, he found himself wondering where he'd heard it. He was positive he'd never met the girl before. Someone like that, there was no way he'd forget. Maybe it was a relative of someone he knew? That must have been it he decided.

It wasn't until he was safely back in his RV, driving down the road that he placed it.

"Rachel."

Chloe watched, amazed, as Frank slowly backed away from them. She'd never seen him back off so quickly before. She turned back to Max, who had seemingly just appeared beside her part way through the exchange.

"Holy shit Max, that was amazeballs!"

Max didn't respond, instead continuing to watch Frank back off until she was confident he wouldn't change his mind and come back.

"Hey Max, you there?" Chloe asked, tired of waiting for her friend to respond. She was just about to start waving he hand in front of Max's face when she responded.

"I'm fine." She said, letting out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "Just need to catch my breath."

It wasn't the use of her powers that had taken so much out of her. She had pushed those a little, but no where near as much as she could. The real reason Max needed to catch her breath was to get a hold on the memories that had flooded to the surface.

Max hadn't needed to use her powers in a potentially dangerous situation in months, not since she'd returned to Arcadia Bay. The closest she'd come to it was when she used them to manipulate the Blackwell Academy roll to get into both the school and the dorms, and that had been nothing like this.

Max closed her eyes, taking a moment to make sure she was in control, only to immediately regret it. As soon as she closed her eyes she saw flashes of the concrete hallway, shrouded in darkness. Red lights streamed through the hallway, casting an eerie glow on the twisted face that stared into her soul.

Max snapped her eyes back open, refusing to get sucked into another nightmare. Instead, she leaned on Chloe, using her friend to ground herself to reality. Chloe wrapped her arm around Max so instinctively that Max wasn't sure if she realised she was doing it.

"So, Badass, what should we do next?" Chloe asked. "Up for your turn at the bottles?"

"You know, I think I've had my turn. How about we just go for a walk or something?"

"A walk sounds good."

Chloe dropped her arm from around Max and the two of them walked out of the junkyard, pointedly not going out the same way as Frank had, instead walking alongside the train tracks.

Chloe could only contain herself so much longer. "Holy shit Max! That was so cool!"

Max turned to face her, giving her a face to prompt her to explain.

"The way you made Frank back down, you were so badass!" Max could hear the excitement and wonder in Chloe's voice, and was suddenly impressed with how long Chloe had kept it inside. Her friend wasn't exactly renown for her restraint. "Not to mention how you basically just saved my life again!"

"It wasn't that impressive." Max replied, not sure how to handle being the centre of attention. "I just told him to back off."

"Not true! You were all BANG, The next one wont miss. Hell, you knew he was going to pull a knife before he did!" Chloe smiled and shook her head. "You know, I don't mind that you didn't contact me in Seattle. With how exciting your life must have been, its no wonder you didn't."

"I wanted to Chloe. I really did, but I couldn't."

"Why?" Chloe asked. Unlike the previous times it had come up, Chloe wasn't angry, just curious. "With what you've shown me, with what you can do, what could possibly have stopped you?"

Max wanted to tell her. She wanted to lie down and tell Chloe everything, just let it out. Max started to say something, anything about what had happened over those past five years. But she couldn't. It just caught in her throat and refused to come out.

"I… I…" Max choked on her words. "I can't Chloe, I'm sorry. Not yet."

Chloe thought about it for a moment, weighing up her possible responses, eventually conceding. "That's okay Max. Please, just tell me when you can."

"I will Chloe, I promise."


End file.
